memory ball ornament

One of the things I love about putting up my tree each December is going through the boxes of ornaments and remembering the day we purchased or created each one. I can't remember my own cell number but I can remember each and every ornament and when we got it!

While waiting for my then-husband's prescription to be refilled I was sitting across the way from a rather cheesy display of clear glass ornaments. The store had filled several of them with things like shredded paper, glitter, etc. Then, I had a V-8 moment! Why not fill those ornaments with things that really matter - but that you might not ordinarily save.

For example:

• Fill an ornament with sand from your summer trip to the beach and some tiny seashells. Use a paint pen to write the year and places you went.
• Use the shredded paper in green and put a couple of golf tees in for your favorite golfer. Use a paint pen to record their best score of the year and the course on which it happened. Do this each year to chart their progress! Perhaps use stickers or stencils of golfers around the ball for added design.
• Collect "fortunes" all year from your visits to Chinese restaurants (in cookies) and keep a fortune ball.
• Suspend hair from a baby's first haircut from ribbon attached to the top of the ornament. Use the paint pen to record the baby's name and date.
• Just break ground on a new home? How about a bit of dirt to commemorate the date?
• Getting free of debt? Create a one of a kind ornament by cutting up all your credit cards into tiny bits and inserting them into a ball ornament.
• Any paperwork can be shredded to commemorate an event - for example, shred a teenager's first speeding ticket (use a paint pen to commemorate the date and circumstances!), shred an appointment card for a chemotherapy patient that has finally finished their treatment. You can also insert a hospital bracelet into a ball to commemorate a major medical event (a successful surgery or birth, for example), if appropriate.
• Memory ornaments are perfect for the kind of ephemera that gets lost in our daily lives but which might make a fun gift or family remembrance in the future.
  

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