The stories on the tree

Here it is, as promised, our Christmas tree (sans tree skirt – I haven’t opened that box yet). This is the first year in, um, EVER, that we have had to purchase a tree. As some of you know, the Webmaster’s family owned a Christmas tree farm and business that was started by his grandfather. The family sold the business some years ago, not long after the Webmaster and I got married, but we still had free trees available to us up until now.

Well, we could’ve had a free tree, but we didn’t get one at Thanksgiving, and the Webmaster’s parents have been alternately busy and then blocked off from us by receding flood waters, so by the time we actually GOT the free tree… I mean, we only have the tree up for a month! We have to get it up to enjoy it QUICK!

Anyway, the Webmaster went to a local tree lot (whose owners had some very nice things to say about the old family business, having bought from them in the past), and purchased a tree. The family grew noble firs exclusively, so that’s what we have.

I consistently tease the Webmaster about getting a fake tree (which is what my parents have had ever since I was 8 years old), because buying real trees can be an expensive proposition. And truthfully, I have no problem with fake. To me, it’s not the tree itself that has any meaning… it’s the ornaments that go on it.

This is my Christmas bell, which I have had… as long as I can remember. Each of the four of us kids had our own bell ornaments. I always thought mine sounded the best, because it has the clearest ring tone ever. The first Christmas after I got married, my mother pulled all of “my” ornaments from the Christmas boxes and gave them to me. There is nothing I love more than seeing pieces of my own childhood on my Christmas tree each year.

Like Strawberry Shortcake. I absolutely LOVED Strawberry Shortcake as a little girl. When I was Ane’s age, I played with my dolls all the time. I still have my dolls, but I haven’t let Ane touch them yet. The egg ornament right behind Strawberry is one my parents gave me a few years ago, and I love it. It’s like a Christmas Faberge egg.

And here is Cookie Monster. This is a really old ornament. My parents had a full set of these as well, and last year my mother decided to thin her ornaments out a little and started dividing these up. I got Cookie Monster and Big Bird, which pleased my kids.

The Webmaster didn’t grow up having special ornaments the way I did. His mother, as far as I can tell, themed her trees around a certain color – in my memory, I’ve seen the “red” tree (red lights and trimmings), and the “gold” tree (clear lights and gold ornaments). So this is the only ornament that he brought to our family tree – a co-worker of his mother gave it to him, if I remember correctly, and it has his name and the year of his first Christmas painted on the other side on the rocking horse’s runner.

And although the Webmaster thinks I am crazy, I am going to give the kids one ornament a year. I have chosen it for them in the past because they were too little, but last year Ane picked this one – Cinderella’s glass slipper. She was thrilled beyond belief to hang it on the tree this year (she had completely forgotten about it), and keeps going back to look at and touch “her” ornament (it’s not breakable, so I don’t have to worry about that). I still have to take her to pick one out for this year, but odds are, it will be another Princess-related one.

Here is Tad’s favorite ornament – it’s just a plastic Snoopy and Woodstock in a car, and it came on top of a Christmas Whitman’s Chocolates sampler box, courtesy of my grandmother. He keeps taking it off the tree so much that it’s just sitting on a branch at the moment. It may have to be permanently removed, because I don’t want him to keep messing with the tree. But someday, when he has a tree of his own, you can bet that this one will be on it, because I will make sure he gets it.

Of course, the IMPORTANT ornaments are hung prominently in front. (Though Artoo needs new batteries to make his beeping noise.)

And, of course, we have a lot of Peanuts Christmas ornaments. Some very old, and some very new. Hallmark carries a few every year, and I’m a sucker for them. I love Snoopy and the whole gang. They are so great.

Yes, I know, we have a LOT of Peanuts ornaments. I could have my own Peanuts tree! Maybe when we get a bigger house.

I must confess, I was having a big case of the bah-humbugs – mostly because I’ve been overwhelmed with SO MUCH STUFF TO DO… but then I got to decorate the tree. And even though it was quite a chore with two small children trying to “help,” I needed to take myself back… to ring my bell… to hang Strawberry Shortcake up… to smile at Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Lucy and the rest… and to see Ane’s face glow when she got to hang Cinderella’s glass slipper on the tree (which I then moved to give it greater support on a stronger branch).

I needed my Christmas tree to give me back my childhood again, and to build memories with my own children that they will carry with them forever.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 6th, 2007 at 3:09 am and is filed under Children, Family, Mommyhood.
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