Most years, I look forward to the 'Holidays', no, not for the religious aspect. Neither E, nor I are active in any church, nor are we overly religious... So for me the holidays are not about religion, they are about 2 things, family and memories, fond memories. I know for some, celebrating Christmas without religion may seem 'wrong' or odd, but I guess it's all up to interpretation. Though I will admit, there is something very special about the religious songs centered around the holidays... as if the most special sounds, lyrics, etc were all saved for them. I enjoy so much more than just the family and decorating of the tree, but if that's all we had most years, I'd be happy as a pig in a poke.
Don't get me wrong, there have been some 'dousies' as far as rotten holiday memories go... last year being the worst. But this year it felt, overall, refreshing to hang the ornaments on the tree. For me, this is my favorite part. Our tree is not a theme tree, beyond the decision of using colored or white lights, it is a hodge podge of things. Ever since I was a child, ornaments have been collected for us every year and when I graduated college I was lucky enough to 'split' the family ornaments with my brother and mom, some of them dating back to my grandparents and possibly beyond.Our tree is adorned in memories. And that's what I enjoy about decorating a tree and the holidays.
E and I have also furthered the 'collection' over the years of our marriage, each year collecting a handful of new ones, every vacation, every weekend trip practically, we added a new ornament. Baltimore, Alaska, Belgium, Sturbridge, DC... the list goes on. If we could find an ornament, we scooped it up.This act of going through the boxes and boxes, unwrapping each delicate memory, this is a wonderful time. This year, it was both wonderful, but also bitter sweet.
In addition to going through the 'old memories', ours together and mine as a child, we also opened up the surprise ornaments. The ones we 'forgot' (not really though) about. The ones we bought during 2005 when I was pregnant. We never had a tree in 2005, so the last time we opened the ornaments was 2004. This left nearly 2 years of ornaments we had never hung.
some of them were so tough, especially the ones we bought in Belgium and in DC when we were expecting. It's an odd feeling to admire the beauty of something and yet to feel some sadness too.We didn't skip any ornaments from that time period, but there was some tender reflection and holding each other tight too. This year, is bitter sweet. it's sweet to go through the old wonderful memories again.
Happy Holidays to all of you.
(I've included some of the favorites on the tree, and some funny ones too. The replica plane from DC, the Alaska outhouse, my yearly collectors Swarovski Ornaments, the girl in the sun from Belgium this and the memory angel are for Sophia, the BIG M and the globe for Magpie and the Alaska state bird)
6 comments:
We buy ornaments where ever we go too! It is nice to "remeber when" each year as we hang up our old ornaments and add the new ones. I need to go get a globe and but our girls intials on it! What a great idea!
Maryellen
Your ornament tradition is a great one, one that I'm sure Magpie will love someday!
I hope soon you will have a wee little one to share the holidays with. Your tree is gorgeous, thanks for sharing.
Hugs,
Jonni
www.journeytosofia.com
I love all your ornaments! We are quite sporadic with the decorating of the tree. Several years we did not have a christmas tree in our home because we were never in it on Christmas (and reasoned we would just enjoy other people's christmas trees), we also lived in a very small house for awhile and were too lazy to move furniture around for a tree. Other years, we had very small trees. Some years I made all or most of the decorations - I still love those best. When we have family at our house during the holidays, we tend to take more care in the decorating of a tree, etc. This year - well, we have a few things. We do have a tree and it does have lights on it - we'll see if we get motivated to dig out all the stuff to put on it though. We will be with family, at their houses mostly, this year. I LOVE visiting /being with our family on holidays. Mostly what I think about these days is what is to come - meeting our daughter.
Beautiful tree and lovely ornaments. We too collect new one year to year. It allows us to look upon our tree as our giant memory box (of sorts).
Keep smilin!
Love the tree and ornaments! I'll have to have Mark take a pic of ours this week to show you. I have to say though yours takes the cake!
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