For our first Christmas as young married people, Jerry and I made the ornaments for our tree. We bought sets of thin wooden shapes with designs like a wreath or a toy soldier. We punched out the shapes and painted them using the paints and paintbrushes that were included with the set. In the evenings, we sat side by side, like young married people do, carefully decorating our ornaments. We even found a big wooden spool, the kind used for telephone wire, and I attached pieces of felt to make it look like a drum. Our spindly Christmas tree poked up from the center, displaying the ornaments we made by hand.

Over the years, we made more ornaments and collected others on our travels. Our Christmas tree is a tree of memories. Most of the ornaments we hang on the tree have personal meaning. It has become part of our family tradition to take ornaments out of the boxes and remember the stories they carry. After 58 years of marriage, that’s a lot of ornaments and a lot of memories. 

One favorite souvenir ornament is an actual crayfish wearing a Santa hat from New Orleans, another is a beautiful blown-glass girl in a kilt from a trip to Ireland. We have seashells from Florida vacations and boxes of other treasures.[PHOTOS]

The pig collection started when our daughters were old enough to go xmas shopping. Finding a pig ornament became their special mission. We have accumulated so many pig ornaments over the years. Many of our pigs have wings, a symbol of Cincinnati, and which some people say represent the joy of making the impossible possible.  [PHOTOS2]

Now, each December, as we hang our collection of treasures and remember their stories, we’re reminded of all our special times together.

-Dee H.