It's Christmas for Your Birthday When You're Born in January

The year our daughter was born,

Hallmark introduced a "Baby's First Christmas" ornament

It was in the Penney's catalog and I ordered it

It was really my first introduction to Hallmark ornaments

 It cost $2.50 and hung on our trees from Christmas Day 1976

until she graduated from college and had a home of her own in 1998.

And today, it still hangs on her tree.

That first ornament started the tradition of a yearly Christmas present  Christmas ornament.

Hallmark ones for probably the first 15 years or so

And then we branched out into other ornaments.

We also give silver bells --

engraved Reed and Barton silver bells to commemorate happenings

such as her wedding and the birth of each of her daughters --

The front engraved Christmas and the year

And the back engraved simply

with her wedding date

or the full name of each of her daughters

In 2017, when her oldest was 4, I came up with the idea of a

"hand" ornament

There were all kinds of clever things to do with children's handprints, fingerprints and footprints on Pinterest -- with paint

But I thought it would be fun to trace the hand, needlepoint the hand in a clever way, and turn the needlepoint into a Christmas ornament.    Plus, I would have each girl print their name

which I would also needlepoint

With Lucy and Piper's assistance, I made that idea into a reality . . . 

2017

Their hand's turned into Santas

Lucy -- she's 4 and she's got her name a bit turned around!

Piper's only two and doesn't print, so Nana wrote her name

2018

It's a Christmas Tree

Piper's is three and can print her name

Notice the extras on the E!d

Lucy is five and she's got her l and u in the right place!

Each girl picked five buttons from my button box and I

found a star button from the top.

2019

Snowmen!

Four year old Piper

Five year old Lucy

Their hands were getting too big -- the ornaments were large and this year

they would have been the size of a salad plate, so I decided to go with thumbs!

2020

Penguins

One ornament -- front side only

Index fingers

Lucy who's seven on the left

Piper who's five on the right

The ornaments aren't given on Christmas but rather, they're traced on Christmas, the girls write their names (and in 2020, it's Piper's printed 2020 that's on the ornament (which is why 2020 is in purple)

Then, those weeks after Christmas I start stitching

For our daughter's birthday is in January

And it's a traditional birthday gift for her

Her last year's Christmas ornament

I'm mad at myself that I didn't think of it in 2013, when Lucy was born

Sarah and I are both sentimentalists,

nothing like special ornaments on the Christmas tree

And these are very special indeed.