I made this ornament out of a piece of stump from our Christmas tree. We would have loved to cut down our own tree, but my husband has a busy work schedule this month, so we went to Lowe’s. We chose a five-foot tree that was on sale for $20.
The employee who helped us find our tree was a sweet young man, probably in his late teenage years. He trimmed a few branches off the bottom and asked if I wanted to keep them, telling me they would look great as indoor decorations. I regretfully declined, knowing we would have no place to display them in our tiny, newlywed rental home.
He also asked if I wanted to keep the 1/2-inch thick slice of wood that he cut off the bottom of the stump. “Lots of people turn theirs into ornaments to commemorate their first Christmas as a married couple or their child’s first Christmas,” he explained.
“What a great idea!” I thought. So you’ll never guess what I did. I took the piece of stump home and turned it into an ornament.
The credit for this keepsake that we will cherish for years to come goes to the young man at Lowe’s. All I did was sand the edges (using a brick on the side of our house), drill a hole for the ribbon (using a screwdriver), and write “Our 1st Christmas Tree 2015” on both sides of the ornament (using red and green Sharpies). And I drew a Christmas tree.
I think the moral of the story is that the young man at Lowe’s is way more creative than I am.