Oh Tannenbaum

Sunday Night we decorated our Christmas tree and along with that came decorating the inside of the house for Christmas as well. We placed Olivia’s cloth Nativity scene on the front door because we do not have a wreath this year. I think it is perfect for the door and I may never assembly a wreath again. We pulled out the nativity sets we own and we discovered that the Angel is missing from our Playmobile Nativity set, Joseph is missing from our small clay set and the Jesus is missing from the large clay set. Not to fear, we have all the pieces for the medium set. (We also have no problem mixing the sets.)Next we opened the box of ornaments. Jack immediately latched on to theYoda ornament I bought on impulse while waiting in line at Kohls at 6:00 AM on the day after Thanksgiving last year (My son thanks you Alyssa because otherwise this precious ornament have, we would not). He also latched on to a Superman ornament given to Eric by one of his students. (Did the student just like Superman or was he trying to make a statement about Eric when he gave him that ornament? I do not know but I like to think the latter)Olivia was awed by each and every ornament she pulled out of the box; some because she remembered making them but others because they were her “FAVORITEST”.Oh Look at the Nutcracker! I didn’t know we had that. I love itOh the angel! This is my favorite. Can I sleep with it tonight?OH this is mine from when I was a baby. It is my favoritest.OH look here is my favoritest yet! This glittery star!Eric, who had gotten the tree in its stand and arranged all the lines of lights (including the bubble lights from the RS family), sighed as he looked in the box noticing two broken glass ornaments we inherited from his family. Every year a glass bulb is sacrificed to the tree. Normally it breaks when it slips out of a small hand or it falls from its place on a branch when the tree is jostled by all those presents being shoved under it. But this year they shattered because of poor packaging. And thus a sigh was appropriate.As I looked in the box and pulled out ornament after ornament, I realized again that my tree is made up mostly from ornaments we have been given and each one brought back a snipet of a memory. The small wreath ornament my nephew Kyle made for my sister Tammy and I and which I claimed when I married Eric. Kyle was six possibly seven when he made it and next year he will be getting married. In these last years it has threatened to lose its pieces but each year I add glue and make it last a little longer. The Angle orb was made by my niece Alyssa when her family visited us for Christmas in 2001. It is a nicely crafted clear ornament that she stuffed with paper of some sort and then drew angles on the outside. 2001 was the first Christmas without my dad and this is a pleasant memory of that year. There is the blue delft looking porcelain ornament Rebecca gave us. I believe it is from Switzerland and so we would have gotten the year before William was born. (Which seems like yesterday and yet was almost a decade ago.) Next to this is a ginger tree with sparkles that we received from Rebecca and her children and there are others from them including the bubble lights. These together, constitute the largest assortment of ornaments we have from anyone that is not a blood relative. And that is right and good. There are others. There is the picture ornament of me that my mother made one year using Styrofoam, sequins, pins and velvet ribbon. She made one for each of her seven children. I think this is the craftiest thing she ever did. And though I am not thrilled with the picture, I do appreciate the time and love that was put into making it. There are the gilded Santas we were given by Great Grandma and a little boy charm with a bell that has Eric etched into it. There are numerous ornaments hand made by Olivia and hopefully some day we will get some from Jack. There is a beautiful golden etched ornament we received in the mail from my niece Katie. It is very stylish and we put it high in the tree for all to see. And there are the ornaments my mom sends each year for the kids and which each year they oooh and aaah over and put on and take off the tree and put on and take off the tree. And since Eric is a teacher we have lots of ornaments from his students. Some of the ornaments make it on the tree each year, some only make it on when Olivia spies it before I have time to hide it. Like the jumbo sized golden sea horse. (Oh if only it could have been dainty like a real sea horse.) And finally there is the reversible tree skirt sewn by Eric’s sister. With that in place our decorating is complete and our tree is filled with love from our loved ones.