Christmas Ornaments for 2010

Introducing our 2010 Christmas tree!  

I'm all for pretty, color coordinated trees that look elegant and really bright up a room, but I'm even more for a tree that has fun, multicolored lights adorning it and filled with ornaments that hold special memories from loved ones or fun occasions.  One day, when I have a house, maybe I'll get to have both types of trees - until then, the one multicolored light tree is what we'll have!  Here are our special, 2010 ornaments that called our tree "home" for the first time this year:

This ornament is from our 1st anniversary trip to Lake Geneva, WI.  We bought this hand painted ornament from a small little home decorators store in downtown Lake Geneva.

This ornament was a gift to us from Stephen's Aunt.  It's a beautiful, Lenox porcelain first Christmas ornament that we received  too late last year to put on our tree for 2009, so it made its debut this year!

Last year Stephen and I decided to purchase a different Chicago ornament for every year that we lived together in Chicago.  This is our 2010 Chicago ornament.  To see last years, click here.

These two ornaments found their way into our home after our August cruise to Alaska.  

Last year, Stephen added his new Steelers' Nutcrackers onto our tree.  This year, when we went to Pittsburgh in the beginning of November to visit his Nana, we picked up these little guys!  Eventually, we'll have a basement with a tree that is entirely sports themed with UK, Steelers and {some} IU ornaments all over it.  I know what you're thinking...I will have a lot of trees in my future home :).

This ornament is a memory of our trip to Washington, D.C. in February with our good friends Matt and Amy to visit our other good friend, Ryan.  The cool thing about this trip was that we were able to meet Ryan's girlfriend (now fiance!) for the first time AND it happened to be during the huge record breaking snowstorm that D.C. experienced.  

So whenever we buy these ornaments or when someone gives them to us, I take a fine tipped Sharpie and write on there the dates that we went on the trip or who the ornament was a gift from.  This makes it really fun whenever we bring out the ornaments in the future to help us remember these great memories. Do you guys have a Christmas tradition similar to this?