2020 Ornaments

Every year we try to collect a few ornaments to represent our year. Usually it's a family ornament and something from some place that we go, like a trip. Well, no trips this year and I was initially annoyed to not have anything special to add to the tree. But then this morning while I was taking photos for this post, I realized we added many new ornaments and we have so many things to be grateful for this year and many milestones to add to our story. 2020 wasn't all bad after all!

There were a ton of ornaments online with masked Santas and toilet paper for the pandemic year. I purchased one but in true 2020 fashion, it arrived broken and in terrible quality. So I tossed it and ordered a "normal" 2020 ornament and it is perfect.

We added our "first home" ornament this year.

And, of course, Ivy's first Christmas.

 

 

I made the little New Jersey felt ornament for us. I made a few for our new neighbors and decided we needed one too.

 

 

Terri Mom sent this little first Christmas rattle. I couldn't find a good First Christmas ornament in time so this was perfect too. She also always gets us the Hallmark bird for the year so we added that (see above) and she sent a Thomas ornament for Kip which perfectly represents his interests as a three-year-old. He loves it.

 

I also always make a small Shutterfly ornament with our Santa photo for the year. Since we didn't get to see Santa this year I just made one with some photos I took.

 

 

 

I was a bit bummed to miss out on all those cute little preschool craft ornaments that start rolling in once starting school. Since Kip is not in school yet I decided to take the preschool crafts on myself and have Kip do them at home. These two turned out really cute and I love the Christmas tree because he had a vision when he started it and he told me exactly how he wanted it to look. He did not want any help at all and it turned out perfect. He is too cute at this age. 

 

Looking back at these ornaments in the years ahead, I'm hopeful the struggles of this year will not be the first things that come to mind. We will think about cute toddler crafts, a deep passion for steam trains, a milestone baby's first Christmas and happy first traditions made during this holiday season at home.