A Beautiful Christmas Tree



A couple of years ago we had a
guest at our home when we decorated our Christmas tree. At that time my two
oldest children were married, and I had begun to implement my plan. Two down,
four to go. That year I watched as my children, all well past the kindergarten
and even grade school ages, lovingly took each ornament out of the box and
explained its history to our guest. They laughed at the funny angel Colby made
when he was preschool age. They spoke of the piano teacher who had given them
an ornament each year they took lessons from her. They carefully placed the
salt clay ornaments on the tree where they would be in full view. As I watched
this, it hit me—our family tree was really a tree full of memories. It was a
history of our family through the years. And it was beautiful.
This year all of my children
except one are married, and most of the mishmash is gone. A few red and gold
ornaments have begun to fill in where memories used to hang. My husband has
insisted that we not give away the ornaments made out of canning jar lids and
velour that have our children’s pictures on them, and secretly I am glad. I
have also decided not to throw out the salt clay ornaments. I have a nagging
suspicion that once all of the mishmash ornaments are gone, I will miss them. I
will look at my beautiful designer tree, and it will seem impersonal. But then
I will smile and think of all of those
missing ornaments hanging on trees in six new households, and I will
think of them as being seeds for my children—the beginning of family trees of
their own.
So glad I'm not the only one:) Thanks for expressing it so beautifully!
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