I really truly love Christmas. For the right reasons and for the wrong reasons.  Yes, I love it for its true meaning of the birth of Jesus Christ and make sure to really focus on that, but I also love it for the gift buying, the Christmas trees and the idea of Santa Claus.

One of my “favoritest” things is to pull out my ornament box and decorate our tree. Growing up we usually had a matching tree. You know, with a theme and matching colors and ornaments. And I loved it! But now I truly enjoy my mismatched tree with ornaments that are really meaningful to me and I still think it looks gorgeous!

When I was decorating my tree last Saturday I snapped a few photos of some random ornaments to share with you all. So here we go…

While on our Honeymoon in Hawaii in 2003 we got to swim with sea turtles, so I got that little Santa sitting on a turtle in Maui almost 7 years ago!

My trip to Ireland is so special to me in so many ways. It marks my official quest to become a wedding photographer and that’s also when I made some really great friendships. And I wouldn’t have this ornament if it wasn’t for Melissa Jill. She literally drove me all over Ireland until I could find an ornament. Thanks, Melissa! I really appreciate your patience and friendship!

We go to Disney all the time, but this is from 2008. We drove from AZ to Cali with Curt’s brother and his wife. It was the best road trip and that’s also when Melissa found out she was pregnant with our first niece :)

Ahh, my little Leica camera. Just admit it, I know you are jealous! It’s just the cutest ornament ever! Amelia gave it to me when she was here last year for my “Girls Only Ornament Party/Brazilian Dinner”.

I got the first two little S’mores guys at Christmas parties at work and LOVE them! I know you will be shocked to hear this, but I never went camping or had s’mores until I was 23 years old! And it became a big joke because I think I ate an entire box of graham crackers s’mores style all by myself while camping with one of the other dietitians I used to work with. I also got a s’mores kit as a Christmas gift at work. They were making fun of me, but I actually use it all the time!

Then in 2008 my BFF, Trisha got me the cute pink S’mores girl. Love her!

And just this year, while in St. Louis to photograph Aimee and Loreto’s wedding, we found this little gem! It was like winning the lottery for me! I was sooo excited. He’s totally perfect and to make it even better, Lisette (who flew in to help me out with the wedding), got a matching one. Now I want one from every state, but I can never find them.

The cute snowman couple was a gift from my mother-in-law. It was the first Christmas Curt and I spent together.

The second one is from Aruba. It was one of the best trips we’ve ever been on. So many good memories from that one!

The egg is from our trip to Puerto Vallarta with Tom and Trisha for Brooke and Conor’s wedding. We got to see the artist making the ornaments, placing each bead by hand without a pattern to follow or anything. It was really impressive and cool to watch. Well, let’s be honest, I think Tom, Trisha and Curt were pretty bored but I was totally impressed!

And the last one is just from this past summer from our trip to Italy. I know it’s not meant to be an ornament but it was the closest thing they had to an ornament and Venice was my favorite place!

And THIS cracks me up! At first, Nathan was helping me and putting the ornaments back on tree after I photographed them, but when I handed him the camera ornament to put back on the tree, he did this instead:

I hope you are enjoying the Holiday season as well!