He Won--Well, We Won

Yes, I have to admit it that my husband won. The tree is down and almost all our Christmas decorations have been put away for another year. I say almost because we still have a strand of snowflakes hanging outside and a few ornaments inside that haven't been packed. The ornaments haven't been packed because we just bought them.

It's a tradition we started on our mini-honeymoon. Since we paid for our own wedding, we couldn't afford to travel right after our wedding so after all the relatives left town, we went on a quick get away to Prescott, AZ. While we were there we walked to the restaurant to have dinner. We passed a little shop and we couldn't resist going in for a peek. In it we found an ornament with a white dove on it. Just a couple of weeks before we had released doves at our wedding so we just had to buy it. It hangs at the top of our tree every year and every year since--sometimes before Christmas and sometimes after--we buy another special ornament for our tree. Some of them have meaning from where we lived and some are special because of our children's favorite things.

This year we let each of our children pick a special ornament. Bryce picked a Southwest-looking ornament with strands of rocks hanging from it. He loves rocks and fossils. Ilaria chose a beautiful Madonna and child and that touched my heart.

It's working! All our efforts to raise our children in our faith are paying off. It is clicking with our kids and it makes my heart sing each time I see it. I can't help but smile.

So, yes, my husband won and it's all coming down and getting packed away but the real winner is our family, especially our children.

Happy Scrapping!