It's trimmed and...beautiful!

Well, it's finally done. The Christmas tree is fully decorated now. It's no longer that bare, embarassed tree sitting in the corner of the living room. It's in full bloom. And I mean full. Yes, we have alot of ornaments. Just ask Mish. She and Steve came over last night and helped me put the last two big tubs of ornaments on the tree. We unwrapped and unboxed the ornaments together, commenting on many of them of course. We have collected all sorts of ornaments over the years that paint a picture of the different activities and stages of our family life. The oldest ornament on the tree is one I confiscated from my parents. It's a tiny cloth stocking that says Merry Christmas in "old type" lettering. It was mine as an infant. So it's old. We have the "First Christmas Together" ornament from 1978. We have the handmade ornaments from when the kids were in preschool. The one Christmas tree with the "floating head of Steve" really made Mish laugh! We have soccer ornaments galore since all three played the sport for years and years. We have basketball, volleyball and football ornaments. Lots of skiing and snowboarding ornaments. Some of my favorites are from a family trip to Red River with the Riskeys. Many of the ornaments on the tree are from the Riskeys. We have exchanged ornaments with our dear friends for many, many years. Many of them are personalized and dated. We have ornaments displaying the musical talents of our children: pianos, guitars and drums. We've got motion ornaments like the disco ball and merry-go-round. We have ornaments from some of our favorite movies like Casablanca and It's a Wonderful Life. And we have the "Chuckie" doll ornaments! Mish found them and screamed. They are actually an old version of Raggedy Ann and Andy, but they've always looked scary to us. One is missing a hand now. I'm not even sure when or where we got them. They're old too. We don't throw them out because they make us laugh. Mish hid them somewhere on the tree. She wants Becca to search for them when she gets home. There was the deer head ornament that we couldn't find. I was beginning to think we might even have another box of ornaments still up in the attic. (Mish and Steve were hoping not!) But then, just as we were closing up the tubs, there it was. The deer head! I put it up in it's rightful position near the top of the tree. Just underneath the handmade angel that tops our tree. It was made by Steve in third grade at Timbercreek. Still holding up after all these years. Well, I could go on and on. It seems that every ornament on our tree has a special story to it. That's what I love about our tree. It may not be the most beautiful tree as far as trees go. It's old and it's shedding. It's not the tallest tree. It's not flocked and themed like alot of trees these days. You won't see it in House Beautiful. But it's filled with more memories than I can write down. And every year, as we take out each ornament, a memory comes back to mind. We've built memories into that tree every year. As that Master Card commercial goes, the tree is priceless. It really shouldn't have to go back into "the box" every January, hauled up into the attic to stay for another year. But it will... along with a few more ornaments from this year.