Creating new traditions

This is our first Christmas is our new house. Our first Christmas in Fl. Everything is "the first" this year.

We have incorporated some new traditions into our celebration. As you know, I have been working on the tree on our lanai. Yesterday I found a red wooden bead garland in a thrift store. I bought 2 big Zip-Loc's full for $1.50 each. There is enough to share. Lots and lots of garland. I thought it would be the perfect finishing touch on this Rescue Tree of mine.

I showed it to Joe and the few new ornaments that I added. I told him that I had declared the tree "finished". He was surprised and did not want the tree to be done. He wants me to rescue more ornies for the tree. He and I both have a special affinity for this tree. The old -retro - vintage (word of the week) style ornies are bringing back memories of our childhood Christmases.

Neither of us have much in our Christmas stash that is from our childhood. We have a few ornies from Joe's grandmother and that is about it. Neither of our families did ornaments for the kids every year. We do not have handed down special things. And we are very aware of that.

So, having a tree where we are rescuing other people's memories has touched us in an unexpected way. We live in a place where people are moving, downsizing or sadly, dying. Their castoffs fill the thrift stores. (I think about the MANY things we donated as we packed to move. I wonder who has our things now.) When I hang a rescued ornie on our tree, I wonder about the family who had these before and what their Christmases were like. I especially wonder about the handmade things. Who made them - who received them and what is the story? Aah, the unanswered questions...

Here is another tradition that we have started with Steff and her family. This mailbox (bought at AC Moore and stained by Bill) is part of a fun pass along. When the flag is up, you check to see who's tag is on the little button. In this case, I am passing this to Bill (nickname "CastIron"). In it is a small trinket, a log book and a baggie full of tags with each person's name on it. Bill will get his trinket from me, log it in the book and then choose someone to pass it to next.


Bill's gift from me is a pocket watch ornament that I found - you know where! I brought it home and put a ribbon on it. Bill loves pocket watches so I am pretty confident that he will like this. And who will get the mailbox next?? We are doing this from Tgiving to Cmas.

I like this new tradition! Fun.