For years I had a beautifully decorated Christmas tree. Every few years I would change "themes". The first few years of marriage we had an "Angel Tree", and it was gold and sparkly and delicate. Then we had the "Macy's Tree", which I based off....the Macy's tree. It was bold, artsy, interesting. Then we had the "Woodland Tree". I really loved this tree, and basically went buck-wild (pun intended) with little woodland animal ornaments, berries, bird nests, etc.

Then, our family of 2 adults finally had a child. I could not wait for Ben to start making ornaments. It's by far the best tree we've ever had. It is our first tree with colored lights. It has my favorite angel ornaments, the ornaments I recieved as gifts that I never used because it didn't match my "theme", some of the bling from my Macy's tree, and of course several of my woodland animals were hiding in there for a surprise.

But my favorite ornaments are the ones that those chubby, tiny, dirty hands made for me. He was so excited to hang them on the tree. He hung them all in a clump at his eye level and said to our 7 month old puppy Minnie Belle: "Minnie Belle, look what I made. You have to be very careful. Don't chew these up. I made these!".

He made this at school with 2 pipe cleaners, and some beads. It reminds me of the old fashioned candy my Great Grandma used to keep in her crystal candy dish.


mmmm...white bokeh.



mmmm....colored bokeh.


This is a reindeer he made using his thumbprints. Not sure what happened to it's other 2 legs.
And his snowman family he made with his handprint. He has made one of these every year of his life.

And finally, the pièce de résistance .... The Cinnamon Applesauce ornament.

To make this ornament you mix equal parts applesauce (any, even strawberry will work) with cheap cheap cinnamon. Then you pour in some glue. Mush it around until it's all blended in well, roll it or pat it out, and use cookie cutters to cut. If you want to run a ribbon through, then poke a hole in the ornament with a straw. It takes about 24 hours to dry, sometimes longer, depending on how thick your ornament it. Smells good for years!