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Nothing says Christmas to me more than tree ornaments.

And, although I'm quite fond of the plain, colored glass balls, I find each year that the ornaments I most enjoy placing on the tree are the ones with special stories or that are unique in some way.

I thought it might be fun to see if I could take decent pictures of some of these treasures. In some cases I was better at this than in others, but I hope you forgive some of the blurriness and enjoy seeing them. And I hope they might make you remember some favorites of your own.

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Ornaments made at school are the most precious:

Sally in pre-school, 1987-8

Hal at Mother's Day Out 1983

And then, of course, the hand-made treasures from school days are priceless:

Some other of the hand-made ornaments we have aren't as obviously handmade...

one of my great-aunts was very into ceramics and made this for us

stitchery was very popular  in my family for several years...

personalized, dated, handiwork is especially treasured

My mother made us a series of little gingerbread men like the one you see above here. Also featured in this photo is another good category: ornaments from favorite places. The blue-white ball is from Glacier National Park. And the ball on the lower right is a favorite old ornament that I "inherited" from Mom's collection. Here's another one:

In general, I'm a fan of simple elegance in ornaments...

but as much as I like the clear ball above, I'm also fond of a set of ornate hand-mades that, unlike most of my Christmas crafts, actually turned out okay:

Another favorite series are some "crystal" plastic plaque-like ornaments that Mom gave us. Dated! Which automatically brings back memories of Christmases past...

beside the 1981 plaque is another favorite "inherited" ball—looks very '60's, doesn't it?

the 1982 plaque is near another one of those gingerbread men

1980 was a very special Christmas...the first one that we were really a family instead of just a couple

I'll finish up with one of our favorite whimsical decorations...and we're hoping he—and we— have some snow to ski on soon!

I hope you are all enjoying your trees and other decorations and are having a wonderful holiday season!