When I was growing up one of my favorite days of the year was the day we set up our Christmas tree. We would go pick it out as a family... we lived in rural New Hampshire... so it was snowy and picturesque in a New England-y sort of way. While we set up the tree we would drink egg nog with nutmeg out of special tea cups~ and listen to Christmas music. A lot of ornaments had stories, and everyone had their favorite ones.
My Mom had a monkey that she got as gift when she was in the hospital with rheumatic fever when she was a child. My Dad liked a delicate glass reindeer and a piece of foam (from an old couch I believe) that he thought looked like a Star Trek ship. He attached a hook to it and tried to find a prominent spot for his foam (If you are wondering if it looked like a piece of garbage hanging on our tree the answer is yes). My sister Becca and I liked the same small porcelain angel~ and we would fight over it every year.
When we were asleep after our wonderful day my Mom would rearrange all the ornaments (gaudy and star trek in the back of the tree) so the tree looked perfect (to her).
Fast-forward to our sweet tree of 2011. I had it in my mind that I was not going to follow in my mother's footsteps and rearrange the tree to perfection. I was going to just let it be. But it turns out that Lil favors certain branches while she is decorating. One branch had 4 ornaments on it. I was holding myself back from stepping in until I couldn't take it any more and I convinced her to spread them out. When we were done decorating our tree it looked a tad jumbled, but sweet.
My Mom had a monkey that she got as gift when she was in the hospital with rheumatic fever when she was a child. My Dad liked a delicate glass reindeer and a piece of foam (from an old couch I believe) that he thought looked like a Star Trek ship. He attached a hook to it and tried to find a prominent spot for his foam (If you are wondering if it looked like a piece of garbage hanging on our tree the answer is yes). My sister Becca and I liked the same small porcelain angel~ and we would fight over it every year.
When we were asleep after our wonderful day my Mom would rearrange all the ornaments (gaudy and star trek in the back of the tree) so the tree looked perfect (to her).
Fast-forward to our sweet tree of 2011. I had it in my mind that I was not going to follow in my mother's footsteps and rearrange the tree to perfection. I was going to just let it be. But it turns out that Lil favors certain branches while she is decorating. One branch had 4 ornaments on it. I was holding myself back from stepping in until I couldn't take it any more and I convinced her to spread them out. When we were done decorating our tree it looked a tad jumbled, but sweet.
The next morning I realized the tree had been rearranged. All those ornaments I had convinced her to spread out were back on that one branch again. Ha! I couldn't help but smile.
1 comment:
AHA!!! A grand-daughter (and daughter???) after my own heart!!!
We just went out and got Christmas tree #2 (actually #4, as the first tree(s) was actually 3 small ones wired together) I thought I didn't have to have a "perfect" tree, but it turns out that a pathetic, droopy tree just doesn't feel right. And Paul never would dream of rearranging my perfectly decorated tree ;0)
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