1.05.2009

A Christmas surprise

Every year, my Papa would give his grand kids an ornament for Christmas. Since this was the first Christmas without him, I decided to carry on the tradition, one last time.

I spent weeks looking for ornaments. You see, he would give every kid a different ornament from the same set. For example, we could all get a sleigh bell, but it would have different carvings. Man alive, it's hard to find four ornaments from the same set that are not Disney or cheesy. I finally gave in and purchased everyone the same ornament. They were pretty Lenox snowflakes.

And then, one day, when I wasn't looking for ornaments anymore, I found these gems. Beautiful "China Glow" Lenox ornaments. I searched and searched and only found three different ones, but I still bought them. Two kids were just going to get the same ornament. Are they not stunning???

Here's a close up of each...I handed them out like my Papa always did. They were all wrapped and I had no clue which ornament was in each package. I just handed them out to everyone. This one went to Katie.
This is the duplicate I picked out and they went to Kristina and Jeff.And here's the one I ended up with....
I made a label and affixed it to each ornament. Ironically, this was the only ornament I got this year. I usually get an angel from my Granny and another ornament from my parents, but this year I didn't get anything. I like that this was the only ornament I got. Even if I did pay for it :-)

You can see a little of the returned snowflake ornament, but this was the only picture I took of the tag.
I doubt I'll continue this endeavor, but I just wanted to see my siblings face one last time as they opened an ornament from my Papa. It was my favorite moment from Christmas this year.

I miss you and love you Papa.

3 comments:

poshdeluxe said...

what a lovely gesture, jennifer!

and yes, those ornaments are divine. a wonderful testament to papa's memory!

Unknown said...

that was a lovely thing to do...but didnt I get you an ornament too?

Craig-Jen said...

Oh, I stand corrected! You did get me an ornament (which I left in Houston and why I forgot....Craig is rescuing the ornament for me on his next trip to H-town!). Oops! And your ornament is LOVELY!!!!!!!