1983 - The Missing Year

Awhile back I did a post all about Hallmark Christmas ornaments. I shared that while I love all ornaments, I particularly love Hallmark ornaments. It's tradition in my house. Every year since I was born, I've received at least one Hallmark ornament and some years as many as four or five.

In that same post, I shared that I had spent a day organizing and cataloging all of my ornaments. During that day of organizing, I realized that I was missing my ornament from 1983. I wasn't too worried, because I knew it would be at my mom's house buried with all her Christmas stuff. I just planned to go through her ornaments next time I visited.

When I was working out with my friend L, I happened to mention that it was the only year I was missing from my entire time on this planet. We had talked about my ornaments before, and she mentioned that she had purchased Hallmark ornaments in the past for her kids, so I brought my Collector's Guide over for her to look through. After that day, though, we didn't talk about it anymore.

Fast forward to my birthday. J and I were meeting friends to dinner out (L and her husband, and my friend LS and her husband). J was meeting us after work. Since L and her husband just live up the street from us, she picked me up so that J and I would only have one car at the restaurant.

In the car on the way there, L handed me a present. When I opened it, it was all I could do to not cry. You see, after our conversation about ornaments, L got online and found me not one, but two 1983 Hallmark ornaments.

Amazing.

The first one she picked out for me didn't arrive in a box. She knew from our conversation that the boxes are an important part of the collection, so she got back online and ordered a second one. For the first one, she used her fancy embroidery machine to make an envelope for me to store it in. (I was too lazy to go find my camera to take a picture of this one, and since it is clear, it just didn't scan well. So I got online and stole a picture from "Hooked on Ornaments" - ignore the red writing going through the ornament.)



This is the envelope she made for me. It's homemade lace. How cool is that? (I put a piece of paper in it so that it would scan better.)




This is the front of the other ornament.




This is the back of the other ornament.




So, now, even if I don't find my original ornaments from 1983, my collection is complete. Thanks, L!