HAYDEN — Each Christmas, Ron and Nancy Vogel look forward to receiving a very special package in the mail.

Guessing what's inside is half the fun. Will it be a windmill? A carousel? An airplane? A water tower? A telephone booth made of colored cardboard?

"Look at this one, the details," Ron said Friday, holding up a miniature Santa's sleigh complete with wrapped packages. He picked up another.

"And look at this one, it's a little Christmas card," he said. "All by hand."

Every handmade Christmas ornament their old friend, Lester Olsen, sends them is a perfectly made version of something much larger, such as the plane or the carousel, or a special item that is a brilliant addition to the holiday boughs, such as the Christmas card folded into a Christmas tree.

"They're treasures, they really are treasures," Nancy said. "We look forward to that little package coming in the mail probably as much as we do any other thing related to Christmas."

"We wait for them all year," Ron said with a clap of his hands. "We can't wait."

These special ornaments are all handcrafted from recycled and repurposed materials. One candle ornament propped up on a can's pop top uses the lid ring for the finger loop. One was created using pennies that were smashed by a train, and now they cheerfully dangle together on a string. The wishing well was fashioned from Popsicle sticks, and one is a precisely cut block of foam board covered in beautiful stamps from Olsen's stamp collection.

"He buys nothing to make them with," Nancy said. "He just uses things that he has or finds as he walks around town."

Ron and Nancy met Olsen in the 1970s when they lived in Chico, Calif. He was their maintenance man for several years until they moved to Hayden. They have stayed in touch with Olsen ever since, and for 27 Christmases he has kept them on his special ornament list.

Nancy said she and Ron are two of about 50 people fortunate enough to exchange gifts with Olsen; they send him gifts in return, but "it's nothing like he sends us."

She explained their friend, nearing his 80s, is an engineering graduate and quite the perfectionist, which shows in every piece.

"I just think his work is outstanding and so meticulous and so beautiful," she said.

"Isn't it amazing?" Ron asked. "I've never seen anything like this."

Nancy said Olsen has been making ornaments about 44 years. She read an excerpt from a note he sent with an ornament, in a custom box he also made by hand.

"I never expected it to go that far," the letter reads. "Some of the ornaments never get put on trees, they're displayed year-round while others are put on special little trees/forms for only my creations. It's sort of like being famous."

Ron and Nancy have 16 grandchildren, and she said someday these treasures Olsen makes will be in their good hands. The magic of Christmas ornaments, especially ones with personal meaning, have a way of linking together families, she said.

"It carries on a tradition for one thing that links one generation to another," she said. "I have some special ones that were my mother's or my grandmother's. I take them out and when I look at them there's a bit of nostalgia and love and emotion that is connected with those pieces. That's probably the biggest thing, they can really connect generations."

And Olsen's unique creations help continue that tradition.

"They're all my favorites. They truly are," she said.