My Favorite Christmas Tradition

Every year, Sam takes the picture I choose for our Christmas card and has it made into an ornament for me.  The first year, it was a total surprise (he even went so far as to have it shipped to my sister's house).  The next year, I said, "I hope you're doing that again."  Now, it's a yearly tradition that I love!  Not only do I anticipate getting the new ornament in the mail, but I also look forward to opening each box containing a previous year's ornament to put on the tree.  It's neat to see how our "family" has changed over the past few years.  We didn't take Christmas pictures the first three years of our marriage, so one of our goals for this year is to find a picture from each of those years to make an ornament with. 

Here is the first ornament that Sam ordered for me back in 2007.  It's a little hard to see Rufus, but he's sitting on Sam's lap.

Here is this year's ornament.  I like that they have started making the picture take up more of the ornament (they've done this the last couple of years).

 

Last year, Sam surprised me with an ornament for Aubrey.  Her ornament goes as close to the top of the tree as I can get it because that's where angels go.  He told me that every time a child joins our family they will get an individual ornament in addition to being included on the family ornament. 

Wow, I can't tell you how hard it was to post that last picture (even if it is just a picture of an etching of a picture)!