It just isn’t Christmas around here until I break an ornament (or 12). For some reason, I have this bad habit of breaking at least one ornament a year.  This started the year we moved into this house ten years ago.

The first Christmas we were here, it was such a great year for our little family. My husband, 5 month old son and I were spending our first Christmas in our new house. We spent lots of time picking the right tree, cutting it down, getting it into the living room and getting it all decorated.  I love ornaments and if they have a story behind them or were given to me, then I love them even more.

Well, somewhere around 3 a.m., I woke up to a loud crashing noise. Yep, it was the tree. It crashed right onto the stone fireplace hearth and at least a dozen of my cherished ornaments bit the dust.  I cried and cried and we tied the tree to a screw in the wall with wire to make sure it never did that again.

Fast forward to last year. My husband, three kids and I (okay, lots has happened in 10 years) carefully set up the tree, hung all the great ornaments on it and called it a night. No, the tree didn’t fall, yet. My husband left to go out of town and silly me decided I didn’t like where we had put the tree. So, in my brilliance, I decided to move the tree by myself, after the kids went to sleep, and guess what happened?

The whole thing went crashing down again!  My daughter’s favorite Kit, the American Girl ornament was one that didn’t make it and I was frantic. I couldn’t break this poor kid’s heart. So, what does any quick thinking mom do? I got on Ebay and found her a replacement. When I had to break the news to her in the morning, at least I could tell her a new one was on the way.

I can’t tell you how many ornaments I have dropped on the hearth over the years, but let’s just say, there is something about me and ornaments.

This entry is part of a Blog Carnival hosted by Katelyn at Free Holiday Ideas (she has some really cool ideas over there!).