Christmas OrNaments

Maria tagged me on her post about Christmas ornaments. So, I picked three ornaments that have meaning for me. I couldn't figure out how to take decent pictures of them on the Christmas tree, so I just hung them on a decorative tree, and you can see the real tree in the background. And no, I didn't fat-finger the N key in the title; I purposely typed the N in caps to make a point. Add to my list of linguistic pet peeves (example - I hate it when people replace C's with K's to be cute) it really bugs me when I hear orDaments instead of orNaments. I don't mean to be a grinch, just say it right already.

So on to the orNaments. From left to right:
- Wreath made out of dough. This was a gift from my Kindergarten teacher for Christmas 1980.
- Japanese Nut Monkey. I don't know what else to call it. It's a monkey made out of some kind of lacquered nut and has a bell in it. I got it from someone in Japan on my mission.
- My half-marathon medal. Jenny hung my one race medal and all of the boys' fun run medals on the tree this year. I think it's a cool idea. I wanted to put my 1st place finishers plaque from the Chief Joseph Run on the the top instead of that star, but she wouldn't hear of it.

In addition to the ornaments, I've also posted a picture of me from the time period of each ornament.

This is me and my little brother Josh at my grandma Wright's house in 1980. It was the tradition at Christmas that all the kids would dress up and play Santa, giving the adults presents if we'd heard they were good that year. As the oldest grandchild, I got to be the real Santa and all the other runts were allowed to wear cotton-ball beards, but I ran the show. I see a lot of my oldest-child tendencies in Eli. I'm not sure what I had in the paper bag, but it wasn't the Glenn Miller Carnegie Hall Concert LP you see in the rack on the left in the back. I wonder when grandpa graduated to 8 Tracks, because that's what I remember them always listening to, and it was usually the Tijuana Brass band 8 Track.

This is me on my mission in Japan. I still can't figure out why more people wouldn't answer the door or talk to me on the train. I went to great lengths to be one of them.

This is me with my half-mary medal. I hope to get many more in the years to come. I'm also thinking about sewing all of my race bibs together to make a tree skirt. If I can't have the top of the tree, maybe she'll let me have the bottom.

Maria tagged just about everyone in the family except for David (I know, I know, but I'll be the one to tag him. We miss you Dave and Mel - please post for Christmas). I don't know who Jenny'll tag, so I'm just going to tag Heather Apples, GR (although he doesn't have a blog, he's got a wicked cool nutcracker collection that I'm sure K8 would let him post his favorites on her blog), and finally, a special challenge to any lurkers with blogs - I've given you so much "quality" over the years, don't you think it's time to give me something in return? Just leave a link to your ornaments post on the comments page so I know who you are. If you do, I'll send you a vintage cotton ball from 1980. I can't guarantee that all of them will be the from mustache portion that have snot on them, though. Those are first come, first serve.