Merry Christmas...?

As you can very well tell, I don't update here that often. And today's topic is a bit on the late side. Oh well.

On Christmas Trees.

Growing up, I don't really remember our Christmas trees before 1990. I don't know why. But I do remember the ornaments. I'll get back to that. All I really remember is that my parents purchased an artificial tree one year and that's the only tree I remember. Except for when we lived with my aunt - but that's another story.

As my brother and I got older and spent less time at home, the tree was either replaced with a desk-top 12 inch artificial pipe-cleaner "tree" or we just didn't have one. I started dating Ryan and every year, we had a real tree. The year we started dating or the following christmas, Ryan surprised me with a 3 foot tree. Since then, we'd had a real tree in one of our bedrooms each year. Something I always longed for as a child (not in the bedroom but a real tree). Now I realize just how much of a pain in the booty a real tree is. Needles, watering the darned thing, sap, disposal, and the list goes on.

For a few years, we didn't get a tree because we didn't see the need in getting one to not even enjoy it because we spent christmas with family. Now that Ivy is here, we spend christmas at home. This is her second christmas. Last year, the tree was real. This year, oh-so-enjoyably-fake. And this tree, has a story. A short one, but one I can totally share.

I have a student who used to work at *major retail chain, name withheld*. He and his brother were working a graveyard and unloading the new stock of trees. The following morning, *major retail chain, name withheld*'s tree inventory was short a few. Student and brother decided to make some cash on the side. The trees were selling at $350. Student/brother combo were selling them for $80. Dude told me about this at the end of October. I filed that bit of info for my later use. Husband and I started talking about all the christmas plans right after Thanksgiving. The tree debate came up. I pulled my wildcard. Ryan flip-flopped with the idea. In the end, he said yes and the student dropped it off at the apartment at the beginning of December. We waited a few days to assemble and when we did, we were happy with the decision. Ornaments up, pretty tree, everyone's happy.

But the tree isn't what makes the story. Granted, my tree story is cool. But what really tells the story are the ornaments. Ornaments make my christmas. I get to pull them out and relive the stories, the years, the previous christmases, every year.

My mom packaged up all my childhood ornaments and gave them to me. The ones that I was gifted in elementary school. The ones I made at a Girl Scout holiday party, the free promotional ones my brother and I fought over. The metal one that my mom had engraved for me. Ryan doesn't really like these because my name is on them. I know what really "bothers" him though is that he doesn't have (as m)any ornaments with his name on them.

I also have a small collection of ornaments from my family's reunions. Some are hand-crafted. Some chronicle major family events. We have decorative ornaments that don't really tell a story. They're just ones that Ryan and I thought were pretty or we liked the color of (there's a mess of pink because it was my favorite color for some time).

Then there are ones that chronicle our life. The ones from our first christmas as newlyweds ("Our first..." and the Mickey/Minnie/"Just Married" one we got on our honeymoon). Ryan's fish collection. My ballet shoes. And then there are Ivy's ornaments. Her first christmas, pink baby things, gift box bobbles. My collection of winged creatures (birds and bugs) that I never realized I collected. Our topper is a star. Got it the year we moved away from Southeast Texas. The lights are a variety in color, shape and type. The skirt... I made it - even though in the pictures, it doesn't look good because it's all over the place.

I really love all the different ornaments. Nope, the tree isn't uniform. Nothing matches. But it sure is beautiful. And it tells our story. That's what matters to me.

 
(no-flash vs flash)

And taking it down, I get to relive the stories again. My mom told me that it was bad luck to take the tree down before the New Year. Even though I'm not superstitious, I think I'll keep this tradition and take it down on new year's day. Ending the year with a story of our life, starting the new year remembering the story and then continuing it.