We held our annual "Kickoff to Christmas" meeting last night. We meet as a family and reveal the new ornaments for the year. Matt & I think long and hard about the previous year and then find an ornament for each kid to commemorate their past year.
For the family, we hung 4 new ornaments - Glacier, Yellowstone & Grand Teton National Parks and one to remember our visit to
Corner Gas.
For Kaitee - Nothing can top her big birthday year, #16! If you remember, we gave her tickets to see
Hamilton in Chicago last July. Matt & I decided that would be the theme of her ornament. We looked and narrowed it down to a two - one representing the SHOW and one representing the MAN. Based on Kaitee's love for history and all things Hamilton, we decided to go with the ornament that represented the MAN (Hamilton) and not the show. We love this little guy - handpainted and holding a $10 bill!
For Alex - her big highlights this year were band, cheerleading, school musical and her Daddy/Daughter trip with Matt in August. We looked for a few ornaments to remember their trip by, but didn't really have any luck. We then remembered her school musical
(Seussical) and looked for a fun Dr Seuss Ornament. We found this one with Horton on one side and a Whoville Who on the other. Alex played a Who from Whoville in the musical, so we gave her this ornament.
For Will - He continues to love Legos and participates in First Lego League. He also has started to be a part of
Marching and Jazz Bands - he even has his own trombone now. We have not given him a Trombone ornament as of yet, even though he's been playing for 3 years. We decided it was time for the Trombone to commemorate his year.
For Maddie - She told me a month ago, "I know what my ornament is going to be this year". I told her that "you may
know the theme, but you don't know the ornament". Matt & I looked all over the "Interweb" as Matt so lovingly calls it. We were hoping to find something out of the ordinary for her volleyball ornament. We narrowed it down and then selected this one. It is a "bag" with volleyball themed items - towel, net, volleyball, water bottle, "bump pass spike", magazine. We also asked the woman to personalize the ornament with Maddie's name and jersey number.
Everyone hung their new ornaments on the tree, today we will finish the decorating.
Last night, the kids held a "kid only meeting" where they discussed their
Secret Santa gift exchange. They are all very excited about this new tradition and can't wait to go shopping!
