I had dinner at my friend’s house last month and I noticed that their Christmas tree is up. It made me excited to put up our own tree and decors in our new home the day after. Her kids were so excited showing me their own ornaments they have chosen throughout the years. I looked around her decors and I asked her what her theme is. She said, “anything sentimental”. I look back 5years ago, when JA and I had our first Christmas together. We have since then built our own Christmas traditions as a family. And I like the “Sentimental Theme”, really, because it is the perfect word to describe how I want my home to be and to look like every Christmas season. Some women I look up (Tita Ginny, Tita Marie and Ate Jenn) to have taught me about Christmas traditions even when I was still single. I have continued to watch them and learn from them year after year as I continue to build my home for my family. The next few blogs will all be about Christmas and some traditions that JA and I do as a family. It has made Christmas more meaningful and beautiful for us, and hopefully for Andi too. Back in 2006, we started to collect Christmas ornaments. A couple friend of ours (Jeje and Glenn Quizon) gave us our first Christmas ornaments. My mother in law gave us our first tree and some friends gave us several Christmas decors we can use to decorate our first home, for our first Christmas. Since then every year, we have collected ornaments for our tree. We get one ornament for me, one ornament for JA and one ornament for Andi (since she was born 2008). Friends and family give us ornaments too from their travels in different countries. Our close friends who know that we collect Christmas ornaments for our tree have given us ornaments as gifts too. I have gotten some from parties I have attended too throughout the years. Our tree is special. It is my tree and my family’s tree. The tree is not just another Christmas tree. It might not look like a signature tree or a decorative tree we see in the malls, but come to think of it, I think that was our goal. We do not want it to just be another tree. Our tree is filled with memories and relationships, friendships and family milestones are represented with each ornament that is hung up in its branches. And we love, love, love it. I am happy to see that Andi loves it too. She is actually so proud of it, because it is her tree too. I love Christmas and I love my/our sentimental tree!