Aunt Bertie's Ornaments

A box of Aunt Bertie's ornaments arrived with the shipment of furniture earlier this year. They are now on my tree. Here are a few of them.

I was surprised to see that she still had the photo snowflake ornament of me and Hubby on our wedding day. I wonder if she actually put that on her tree...

She loved nutcrackers. This ornament is now happily hanging on my tree; I'll be glad to give him a place of honour. 

She was a spectacular seamstress. She sewed a beautiful baby quilt for Trinity. My sister's wedding dress. My date's bowtie and cummerbund for my Grade 12 Graduation even! This is a sewing machine ornament complete with scissors, ribbon, a thimble and all! It's perfect. It looks beautiful hanging from its red velvet ribbon.

Christmas 1999. The family took a trip to Florida in December and all of us got ornaments with our names and the date written on them. Mine hangs on my tree. I was blessed enough to receive Aunt Bertie's too. I am so happy to be able to put it up as well.

My inaugural post for this blog featured my own snowflake ornament that my grandmother made me. (Thank you Nan.) In the box of special ornaments I received, I was blessed to find two more similar ones: one red, one green. I gather one is Aunt Lin's, the other is Aunt Bertie's, though I don't know which is which, and to tell the truth, it really doesn't matter. I will be honoured to put them on my tree every year to accompany my own. Thank you.

Back in July, when I realized without a doubt that we were on the verge of losing Aunt Bertie, I happened to visit a Hallmark store. Although it was early to think about Christmas, I saw the ornament displays, and I spied this one quickly. This sand dollar ornament is the 'memory' ornament for 2012, tied with a ribbon and a dove at the top. On the bottom edge is inscribed, "The ones we love never truly leave us." I bought it immediately. I adore the sand dollar motif too; It's so appropriate for Aunt Bertie. She loved looking for shells on the beach in Florida and sand dollars were one of her favourites. So this particular memory ornament is perfect. I sent one just like it to my sister too for her tree. I put it on our tree this year, remembering so many wonderful Christmases past, spent with my family.   

    

And then I got the box of ornaments that belonged to Aunt Bertie. I opened one up to discover this... 

... a silver sand dollar. 

I shed so many tears when I found it.

Love you Aunt Bertie. Merry Christmas.