This was my first time in 25 years that decorating the tree was not a family occasion. Don’t get me wrong Dave was there he “delightfully” helped haul out the Christmas decor boxes and participated with a glass of Baileys in hand but it was definitely a change with the kids not there 😉
Our tree is eclectic. I have always gone to peoples homes and saw their perfect, everything matches, all white magazine worthy trees and thought someday I will have a tree like that. This year was the first year that I truly appreciated what our tree represents to me. It contains a diverse mix of ornaments. I have the early elementary school crafts that are so delicate that we handle them with the same care as crystal. You know the ones that I mean – the ones where they traced their hands, glued buttons and macaroni, sprinkled glitter and presented their masterpieces with the biggest proud smiles! They also insisted on hanging them on the tree on their own.
We created a tradition early on of purchasing an ornament each year for the girls. Something that represented that year. This was with the intention that when they have their own trees they will have a set of ornament memories to start their tree with. Each year the ornament represents something be it a sport, a trip, an inside joke, a picture – one for every year of their lives so far. This is a fun tradition!
Dave and I have our own tradition of purchasing a Christmas ornament from all of our travels adding Scotland and Nashville to our 2024 adventures.
This was the first year that neither Erin not Caitlyn were not part of the process. It was bittersweet. The memories range from their sweet little hands carefully hanging the nonfragile ornaments (all along the lower half of the tree – with the fragile ones high and well out of reach) to more recently climbing the ladder to hang the so very “old” ones from Dave and my childhoods in their place of honour around the star. I am pleased that we have this tradition and look forward with excitement to the new memories that will be added.
For me our Christmas tree is so much more then just a decor piece. It is a culmination of our lives together so far and is a delightful trip down memory lane. Our eclectic collection results in not a perfect looking tree but an absolutely perfectly delight-filled tree.
