Trimmings

Christmastime is full of tradition. Tradition for me includes trimming our tree each year - usually the weekend after Thanksgiving, much like my mom did when I was a child. I tend to decorate my tree much like my mom did when I was little, as well. I particularly follow her tradition of using strands of silver tinsel. Perhaps one day my kids will also purchase a coveted 12 foot rope of shiny silver garland to adorn their own trees on the weekend after Thanksgiving, much like me - their mom. Or, maybe they will stray from tradition and decorate before Thanksgiving as I did this year. Maybe, too, they will forget to place the tinsel on the tree as their kids cheerfully toss tissue paper aside to reveal ornament after precious ornament in their own collection boxes, and the kids will begin piling their ornaments onto the tree before all the pre-ornament decromentation has fully occurred (like the tinsel), as I did this year. And then, when Thanksgiving ends and they all sit merrily around watching the lights sparkle, perhaps their own Sass will say, "Mom, when are we putting the tinsel on the tree?" And everyone will realize we missed a step. And it won't matter. Because the tree is beautiful this year just as it is. Chock-full of character ornaments left over the years by St. Nick on his special day, and handmade ornaments brought home from preschool, and bits of paper with strings lovingly tied to hang on branches because the older siblings have more ornaments than the younger ones, but the younger ones still want to keep decorating with the older ones... And then, in the back of the heavily decorated, slightly jaunty tree which leans towards the side that all the kids can reach and will see from their perch on the couch, I place my own little collection. Mom's special ornaments. They include these...

given to me by my mom, a Precious Moments angel flutist - with the instrument's end broken - she now plays a piccolo (I paid for much of college on a piccolo scholarship - bet you didn't know that about me!!!)

a snowflake crocheted by my paternal grandmother and given to me as a child

my mom's Santa from an era when paint was in short supply for nonessential things like ornaments - being used, instead, for planes and other matters of national safety

an ornament from my father's tree from my childhood

the ornament we bought at the Grand Canyon after becoming engaged

the ornament I bought in 2002 to ring in a new year - the same kind hung on a tree in the hospital where Pookie spent much of her first year of life

There are more...so many more. Yet, these are a few of the ones who shine a little brighter, are hung a little higher - there on the back of the tree, where the little ones can't reach. In their special place of honor. Hanging with them, the memories of Christmases past, this present Christmas, and those Christmases to come.

God Bless you in this Holiest of Seasons.