We proudly present The Story of Our Christmas Tree starring D'arby, Gwen, and Chad

D'arby's Very First Christmas. I think this one came from her grandma, but it was a long time ago, so I'm not sure. I engraved a million of these things when I worked at the mall. (1990)

Sand dollar from McClellanville, South Carolina, made by my high school friend Mimi, who spent most of junior and senior year driving us around in The Green Machine since no one else had a car. (1991)

Ariel, from D'arby's Aunt Sybil (1992). Incidentally, if you ask my sister Esther, she can recite and sing The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast from start to finish, non-stop.

I don't think there was an Elmo when I bought Cookie Monster (1993). D'arby's snail (2001) brought back fond memories of the poems I used to write when I was about D'arby's age, about Mary Lou the snail (her mother's name was Snail Sue) and the ceramic snail Mrs. Glesener gave me at the end of 6th grade.

The D'arby (age three, with Bear, who was in much better condition back then) angel, handcrafted by Creama. Hands-down my favorite ornament ever (1994)

Polygon thing I bought at an old woman's yard sale, along with the koalas, reindeers, and angels. They all came in pairs, are made by hand, and look like they escaped the Island of Misfit Toys. I like that we have these ornaments that this woman probably had on her tree for decades, though it makes me a little sad that her own kids didn't want them. (1994)

The snowman globe also came in a set of two, from the same old lady. He reminds of the USPS Zippy icon guy. (1994)

Snowman cut-out made by D'arby in Mrs. Olrich's Best Kindergarten Class Ever! (1995) and shell ornament made by D'arby's friend Mimi (not to be confused with older Mimi from South Carolina) in 3rd grade (1998)

Paper angel colored by D'arby in kindergarten (1995), and one of two paper candy canes D'arby made in 1st grade with Ms. Lee, who liked to tell her students that they would go to hell if they didn't behave. Ms. Lee didn't come back after Christmas. (1996)

We've gone to The Nutcracker every year since D'arby was old enough to sit through it, and she usually picks out an ornament from the gift table in the Paramount's lobby, which is where these ballet slippers came from (1997). The bells were given out at Ryan and Julia's wedding (2002)

I picked out this angel for D'arby in 2nd grade (1997)

The SFSPCA gave D'arby this silver star when we gave them a bunch of money in exchange for taking on the decade-plus-long responsiblity of caring for our cat Casey, who was really, really evil the first few years of his life. If you'd asked me before this year, I would have definitely said it wasn't a good trade. (1998)

The rarely-invoked Santa Clause, made by D'arby in 3rd grade. HO HO HO! (1998)

Let it snow, man, picked out by D'arby in 4th grade (1998)

We have several of these beaded snowflakes made by our cousin Lisa, who died in 2001 of a brain tumor. (1999)

Miniature of D'arby's Bear (1999)

Misfit angel (1994) and D'arby's tiny reindeer (2000)

Gwen's beehive (2000)

Chad's initial contribution to our ornament collection (2000), and Ian's elephant (1998) in back.

D'arby's Olive, the other reindeer (2000) and the Starfish Santa Chad brought back from our summer road trip to Ensenada (2001)

If I didn't already say, I absolutely love anything that looks like it came out of a Bass-Rankin Christmas special. Just so you know. (2001)

Chad's spangly shoe. This is the second time that I've asked when he put it up, "Is that supposed to be a candy cane?" and he got all put out because it's a shoe, it's so obviously a shoe. We'll probably keep repeating this exchange every year for the rest of our lives, because it looks like a candy cane. (2002)

D'arby's 7th-grade hippie Beanie bear and my Pucca and Garu dangler (2002)

We haven't gone out to pick our ornaments for this year yet, but Brandon sent me a U. Indiana globe as part of a secret-santaish ornament exchange (2003)

and an adorable snowman (2003)

D'arby, topping our 2003 tree.

I spent more than half her life waiting for this perfect angel to come along (1998)

And it's just this year I found the round lights I'd been looking for (2003)

Ta-da!

See you next year.