Eddy and I were married December 17, soon after Christmas came and although we had a Christmas tree we had only a handful of Christmas ornaments. When my children are grown, I want them to have a box of ornaments that they loving picked out over the years of their childhood that they can take with them when they leave home. Every year as a family we go to the store and everyone gets to pick an ornament for that year, I used to try to find ornaments that represented something from that year but it was to hard to find ornaments accordingly so everyone just picks one that they like.
The kids love to go pick out their own ornament and really look forward to it. I set the price of how much an ornament can cost ($2) and then when they find one they like they put it in the cart but if they find another that they like they have to switch it out as only one ornament in the cart per person. It has taken a few years to perfect the process. We almost never go to the store as a whole family and after the yearly pick out ornaments trip I remember why-chaos. We keep our focus just on the ornaments and try to make it as quick as possible.
After singing christmas carols on the drive to the store we arrived to find Wal-mart had set up a lovely photo shoot for us. So we obligingly took a photo. Wait, what was that sound? A groan of a teenager and a whoosh of air as he darted away. Maybe Quinton needs to sing more christmas carols with his off-key family to get him in the spirit of Christmas.
Merry Christmas from four Carlton children, I bet Santa is taking notes
Can you guess who picked which ornament?
A. Rhiannon-I am trying to make Santa's life easier,
now if someone is naughty he doesn't have to bring his own coal
he can pluck this off the tree and drop it in a stocking
B. McCoy-loves his sundevils
C. Quinton-he found his ornament the fastest and every year he picks a Santa
D. Declan-he really liked this sleigh and one of his favorite christmas carols is Jingle Bells
E. Zaynzley-found hers right away and happily carried the cupcake the whole time
F. Eddy-has high hopes for the Arizona Cardinals this year
G. Archer-Acorn for some reason Archer really wanted an acorn even though he has never seen a real one as they don't grow around here. He kept picking ornaments like a turquoise oval with a band of gold glitter and declaring it was an acorn and his choice for this year's ornament. I was fine with that whatever his heart wanted. As we were about to leave, Eddy asked Archer which ornament was his I told him it was Archer's acorn and Eddy said why doesn't he get that acorn pointing right at a real acorn ornament that we overlooked. Archer was very happy to find a real acorn ornament and it even had a jingle bell in it.
Look at all those ornaments to choose from!
Declan faux bites a cupcake ornament so then his bros have to do it too
Archy bites an almost acorn
McCoy finds a golden apple
Eddy's favorite ornament section the Arizona Cardinals and Sundevils
Archy nearly bites Zany's ornament
Archy, McCoy, Declan, Quinton, Eddy & Zany
Ornaments selected, just need to write their names and year and then hang them on the tree with all their ornaments from years past!
A lovely tradition!
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