I absolutely adore this quote. When I pulled out all the boxes to decorate the Christmas tree this year, I admit I wasn’t 100% in the spirit for it. My husband loves Christmas, though, and I didn’t want to dampen the holiday for him.
It took over two hours for the two of us to place each ornament, pine cone, and bow on the tree. I turned on some Christmas CDs, and we ended up dancing to Elvis Presley as we worked.
It started out, for me, as “Let’s just get this done.” But as we unwrapped each ornament and chose the best spot for each one on the tree, I found myself pausing to enjoy each one, holding them up to share stories with my husband or laugh or just comment on how old some of them are. He was enjoying himself so much, I couldn’t help but start having fun, too.
None of our ornaments is from a generic box set from a store. I love that. It wasn’t intentional; it just sort of happened over the years, an ornament for each other here, a souvenir from a trip there, or a milestone, like our new home ornament, or the first “Mr. and Mrs.” ornament. We have a few cherished ornaments from family members no longer with us, and they get a special spot on the tree.
Each of the kids selected their own ornaments during a shopping trip when they were all so little, and it makes us smile to unwrap those, to remember them circling the trees at the store, picking out just the right one. They have personalized ornaments I had made for them for one of our first Christmases together. Some day, it seems only right that we pass those ornaments along to them when they have their own homes and their own trees to decorate with them, and it will feel odd not to unwrap them each year anymore.
One year, I got the idea to bring home packages of tiny red bows, and when I attached them, one at a time, to tree branches, my husband said our Christmas tree was beautiful. I do it every year now, even though it takes a while, because it’s just so pretty. And I love how excited he gets as the tree gets dressed up with its little red bows.
This year, I caught my breath when I unwrapped an ornament that my mom had gotten for me years ago. I suppose it’s always going to hit a good bit differently now. So now my memories of her are wrapped up in our tree, too, and I am grateful to have that touch of her, that gift from her, on our tree.
We have ornaments from field trips with the kids, and I made an ornament with seashells from our beach trips this past summer. When we recently took a trip to the zoo, we had fun picking out ornaments and getting them personalized, then adding them to the tree as soon as we got home.
It takes a long time to put up our Christmas tree, and taking it down will take a while, too. I guess we will just put on some Elvis, dance, and share more stories as we wrap each ornament, each memory, back up, until next year.
Sweat & Sparkle 