Last night was tree decorating time. Because we have a ton of ornaments, I seldom get much help. Well that's probably not the real reason, but that's ok. I absolutely love decorating the tree! And this year I shaved 2 hours off my time from last year with having the tree complete in just 5 hours, lights to tree topper. (Guess this exercising and eating right helps in tree decorating too!)
I know some people have 'themed' trees. Some have white lights, some colored lights, stay on lights or blinking lights. We have white lights that stay on and colored lights that slowly alternate on and off with other white lights. It's covered in gold ribbons, bows and icicles. But my favorite--the ornaments.
Each year I take out the special ornaments and think about the first year I hung them or the occasion that brought them into our home. This year one of the first ornaments I placed on the tree was an angel frame with a picture of our precious dog Mercy in it. Tears started flowing immediately....which made the lights look pretty but my heart sad. It has been 7 months and we still miss her terribly. The ornament took a prominent place on the tree and started me thinking even more about each ornament that followed.
There's the ornament from our first married Christmas. A couple caroling. Appropriate since we both loved to sing. And each child has a special ornament. The one that was created especially for that first Christmas but somehow found it's way into the baby's teething mouth before it ever got hung on the tree 22 years ago. It still has those teeth marks. The fire department themed ones for baby boys' first Christmases. And finally a beautiful little pink Precious Moments one when we completed our family with a baby girl. Oh! And we can't leave out the Elvis ornament of course! Could any tree be complete without one???? The Peanuts gang and I Love Lucy can't be left out either. Plus many Nativities of varies shapes and sizes.
Our tree also has ornaments that I made my first Christmas away from home 31 years ago. I can't believe they have survived this long! We have ornaments made by kids in Sunday School. There's the ornament made by the wife of a special employee years ago. And the one my husband was given not long after we married. It's a white snowflake. He told me the night he brought it home how the lady who made it asked him about my favorite color. Since he couldn't remember, she gave him the white snowflake. The funny thing....at that time my favorite color was peach and everything from the wallpaper to the comforter in that room was peach but when I covered his eyes and asked him what color the room was, his guess was blue! Oh well......
Some of the most interesting ornaments are ones we have collected while on vacation. Any time someone in our family goes on a trip they either bring me sea shells or a Christmas ornament. As I hang the ornaments, I get to remember trips to Washington DC, San Antonio, Gettysburg, Chocolate World, Harpers Ferry and Philadelphia. My kids have brought me ornaments from the Empire State Building and Boston. This year we have lots of new ornaments on our tree. Ones from a Colorado ski trip and a choir trip to St Louis now have their places on our tree. We also have a cute little Coke bottle ornament from Coke World in Atlanta and a sea shell angel from the Bahamas. The winner of the farthest traveled ornament is a cute little Buckingham Palace Guard our son brought back from London. So our tree now represents Christmas Around the World. Well kinda.
I absolutely love my ornament collection. I love the memories each one brings. I think that mostly though I love the fact that my family thinks of me while away from home and spends time looking for just the right ornament to bring me. Yep. The love of my family. That's the best part.
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