Ornaments of Memory

Lisa and I went out (braved the weather?) and purchased a Christmas Tree this evening. After spending about 2 hours on the front porch area it came in doors. It's a fine tree at about six and a half feet tall. We then proceeded to cover our tree in wonderful lights and decorations (ornaments) from the past year and a half together as well as ones given to us in the almost twenty-five years we've been alive. These little hanging bits of glass, crystal, plaster, wood and stone are all reminders of our past, not just together, but our paths to each other as well. The Christmas' of the past can no longer be taken back or done over, or even forgotten. Past Christmas experiences hang on the tree of our life like the little ornaments that currently adorn our lighted tree. Some of them are in the back where fewer people can see them, and others are prominately displayed in the front. I remember my dad had an ornament that my mom didn't particularly like very much. (Was it a cat or what?) It always went at the back of the tree and was generally put in the least viewable spot. (I don't know the history of this piece) I remember one Christmas we opened up the boxes and the cat-type-glass-ornament's leg was broken. Granted my siblings and I never really knew what it was or where exactly it came from, but the passing of the strange ornament that hung on the tree was kind of sad. It was a part of the tree just as much as the other more shiny or fancy pieces.

I guess my thinking on the subject is that Christmas, for each and every one of us, is like it was for Scrooge in Dicken's "A Christmas Carol". I don't think it's any accident that Christmas and New Years are so close together. I think Christmas is a wonderful time to examine the past and look carefully at the ornaments, and memories hanging on your life. Then New Years is a time to evaluate any changes that need to be made.

The earliest Christmas memory I can dig up (right now off the top of my head) is when my family was living in CA and we were living in an apartment. I don't know if our tree topper had broken or we were "between" tree toppers at the moment, but I recall Dad took some cardboard, cut out a star shape, and then covered that in aluminum foil and then attatched that to the top of the tree.

That said what are some of your earliest Christmas memories?

~B.