Scrooges Selling Ornaments

Each year, since 2002, we’ve been adding personalized ornaments to our collection. My long time high school friends Denise & Niki were the ones that turned me onto this tradition. They’ve been doing it for years and I always remember thinking that it was such a neat idea.

It’s fun to see the progression…from Jay, Amy & Sunny {the cat} to Jay, Amy, Sunny, Riggs & Rascal…then the addition of a little Elliott a couple years later and then the final addition to the family, Holden, in 2007.

Each year the kids get one and then the family gets one. When the kids go out on their own {waaaay down the road, thank goodness!} I will pack each of their personalized ornaments in a keepsake box for them to add to their trees each year.

However….

I am getting more and more annoyed with the ornament selection each year.

At first, we were able to find beautiful dough ornaments like this one…

Handmade. Real pebbles in the fireplace. Tiny sticks for the logs. Lacquered. Attention to detail on the penmanship.

Then all of a sudden all I could find are cheap plastic{ish} ones that are borderline corny. Now keep in mind that I get these off those mall kiosks and some of them are cute, but you also have to make sure that you get someone that has nice penmanship…that has been my challenge for the past few years. I have not been happy with the printing. Why would someone with crappy handwriting be hired to do these ornaments? They aren’t cheap….

This year I shopped for them in San Diego and was irritated because the girl HOVERED over me as I panned the, again, not-so-impressive selection. Seriously, she was all up in my business the whole time I was browsing…like I’m going to bolt out of a busy Westfield shopping mall with a 5-finger discount on some not-so-fabulous holiday ornaments. Hellloooo, I want to stay on Santa’s NICE list!

I ended up getting Elliott a little school bus to celebrate her starting kindergarten this year and Holden a green John Deere{esque} tractor because….well, because I thought it was cute!

I really liked this one for the family:

But they didn’t have a foursome.

Maybe next year…

So, I decided on this one:

I love little Holdy peeking out of the “O”.

The penmanship was fine, BUT hovering girl smeared the names and I didn’t notice ’til I got home!

{Anal retentive much? :-)}

Ugh!

If it’s not one thing it’s another. I know this is a petty thing to be {complaining} about, but I am tired of spending good money on less than quality items from nasty, no-personality-havin’ girls at mall kiosks. Perhaps I need to find a holiday boutique with some handmade ornaments from here on out.

This is a tradition that I love and I hate to have such a bad taste in my mouth in the end.

Not to mention Holden dropped his new one as we were trimming the tree last night and the tractor lost a wheel.

Good thing I had my glue gun handy.

*****

Happy December 1st Flip Flop Family!