angels we have heard on high ...

So 2 days ago, Jen had another link-up party ... and guess who's late - again?! I had just finished writing that huge weekend update about our conversion to Christmas mode and just couldn't spare another minute of time. I took the next 48 hours off to focus on other things, but it was nagging me that I didn't join in ... I've really loved learning about everyone else's Christmas decorating traditions - advent trees, gift-wrapped books for each day, tiny ceramic villages, lots of elves like ours. But we really do have a great tradition that's worth sharing - so by golly, I'm linking up late - who cares about punctuality?!

Anyway, you already know about our beloved tradition of our Elf on the Shelf, Toddy - btw, today he's on top of the grandfather clock, his briefcase tucked to the side ...

But Toddy is a relatively new tradition, he came in '07 ... so this post is dedicated to one of the most treasured traditions in our family - our Christmas angels:

The girls have a Great Aunt, now in her early 60's, who was never married and lives about an hour from here. She's my father-in-law's sister (Manbug's aunt), and she was a big part of Manbug's life growing up - just as she is now a big part of our girl's lives. On each girl's first Christmas, she started an angel collection for them ... the earliest angels in the collection were cherubs to represent those first years of their lives ...

As the girls started growing up, Auntie would really try to select an angel that would best represent the year that they had (sort of like Kerri's tradition with the ornaments for Brady each year) ... for example, after a particularly successful year of accomplishments for my big ladybug, she was given an angel with arms stretched high above, fists clenched as though she were saying "yes!" ...

... and in 2004, the year she cut 10 inches of hair for Locks of Love, big ladybug's angel had long long flowing brown hair like hers ...

As the girls grew, so did their collections ... last year, I got the ornament stands that you see pictured so that each girl could display her collection all together. Each ornament has their name written on the bottom as well as the year it was received - and each collection is stored in it's own container through the other seasons (god forbid we mingle the collections!). They LOVE to unwrap these beautiful treasures each year and lovingly inspect each one to be reminded of how old they were at that time. I'll often hear an excited "Oh, I remember when I got this one ..." followed by the full story. Big bug's collection is obviously the larger one - it now has 12 angels ...

Little ladybug's collection is the smaller one with just 9 right now. We display them in the one and only formal area of the house - the dining room. The girls felt this was a place of honor for such a grand collection, so they each get one end of the side table. It's one of the happiest sights around the house at Christmastime and the girls will frequently visit them and even talk to them or play with them. With so much the focus on "the big gifts" (the wiis, the xboxes, and the other "it" toys), it really warms my heart that one of the girls' true highlights of each Christmas Day is to see what their newest angel will be and to introduce her to the collection right away ...

O Angels of God, from heaven so bright,
watching beside my children to lead them aright;
Fold your wings round them,
and guard them with love;
Softly sing songs to them of heaven above.
Amen