I don’t recall when or why the game we unimaginatively call “The Ornament Game” began, but I suspect it was created to distract our young daughters from grabbing ornaments on our Christmas tree while still encouraging them to enjoy its beauty. It’s basically an “I Spy” sort of game, where the person who is “It” gazes at one particular item on the tree, and the other tries to figure out exactly which ornament that is. Sounds fairly simple, but if you know that our trees for the last dozen or more years have all been 10 to 12 feet tall and that I have a ton of ornaments, then you realize that it can be challenging (at least enough so to occupy two girls who are impatient for Santa to arrive). “It” must never waver from her focus on the chosen ornament and must honestly answer a limited number of questions from the inquisitor: “Is it white?” “Is it an angel?” “Can you see all of it or just a part of it from where you are?” Once the right ornament is identified, the roles are reversed and the game continues until they tire of it.

I enjoy my own perusal of the tree and its decorations in my own way. As my eyes scan over the branches, I pick out first one and then another bauble and recall when and where I found it. It’s a pleasant way to review some of my travels, and I like the fact that my favorite holiday provides such a great way to bring together so many of my favorite memories.

There are a few that survive from my childhood, and others that I purchased back in college when I first had my own tree in my first apartment. Most, however, have come into my life since my marriage and are a chronicle of trips near and far that Harry and I and the girls have shared together or taken separately. The red basket-weave baby carriage came from a trip to Seaside, Oregon, when I was pregnant with Jenny. The wooden moose came from Jackson Hole, Wyoming, on a summer family road trip that took us to Yellowstone and Glacier national parks, too. More recent journeys are chronicled as well: a ceramic Celtic knot from Edinburgh, Scotland, and brightly painted tin ornaments from our New Year’s trip to Rosarito Beach, Mexico, just last year.

There are a few decorations from destinations I have not visited but that family members have contributed. Sarah gave me a fleur-de-lis from her visit to New Orleans with then-fiance (now husband) Dan, and my brother-in-law’s family has sent us a few from their home in Texas. Rounding out the collection are the newest additions from travels this year. Over there is a tiny wooden Pinocchio from Capri, Italy, I picked up during the cruise with my sisters, whose jointed limbs jump and dance when you pull his string. And here is that lovely cloisonne articulated koi that we picked up at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago when we visited the girls just this October.

I look forward to adding to my store of memories and ornaments on my travels in the coming year. I wish you safe and fascinating journeys wherever in the world life takes you in 2010 as well.

— Patty Vanikiotis, proofreader