Mr. Hammond....The Tree is Done

OK, so I have to confess.....

I don't love putting up the Christmas tree.

There I have said it and now I feel better, relieved, lifted of the burden.

I love it when it is all done. It looks so pretty, that lovely non-real tree with it's little white lights and all the ornaments. I heave a huge sigh of relief, sit down, have a cup of tea and enjoy the view. Until I remember that what goes up must come down. But I push that to the back of my half empty cranium so that I can just soak in the completed tree.

There was a time when I had progeny at home to do the job for me. It was the ritual that the weekend after Thanksgiving I would get the tree box out of the basement, lug it upstairs, put the thing up, put the lights on it and then tell the crumb crunchers to go at it. Hang all those ornaments anywhere on the tree that your little heart desires. Just make sure that you don't hang anything fuzzy on the bottom branches because the cats will steal them and chew on them. We won't discuss cat saliva covered ornaments at this time.

But, the best part about the tree is looking at the ornaments. All of them have some special memory attached. Someone gave it to us, someone made it for us. That is what makes them so special.

We have the angel that sits on the top of the tree. She is #2 in my angel topper "series". All that means is that when the kids were young I needed an outlet for my creative urges and so that I didn't murder them in their sleep. So I sewed....A LOT. And one of the things that I made was an angel for the top of the tree. Several years ago the original angel was delegated to a smaller tree that sits in the front hall and angel #2 was made. I love her.

I love getting out the wheat weaving ornaments my Grandmother Amsler made for us many years ago. These were particular favorites for the cats so they always hung way up high, not that the cats didn't try to scale the tree to get to them.

Then there are these lovelies. I remember spending a summer in the basement of my parents house painting these things. There were a lot more than these two but I think they must still be at the parental unit's house because I know that I don't have them. I just remember that it was hot, even in the basement and I spent hours listening to Bread on the stereo in the basement and painting, painting, painting. And inhaling paint fumes.....which might explain some things......

Look! It's Baby Jesus wrapped in swaddling clothes or perhaps a piece of felt and pipe cleaner. But the thought was there.

But by far my favorite ornaments are these lovelies. In 1994 The Engaged One embarked on an art project of her own creation. She spent a ton of time in her room with paper and crayons and scissors.....she was a whiz with scissors. And then she proudly hung these ornaments on the tree. There is Mary and Joseph and Jesus in a manger along with a shepherd, a sheep, a wise man, a gift, a Christmas tree and Santa Claus (she covered all the bases).

She had even cleverly thought through the problem of how to hang them on the tree. We had these orange plastic pompoms and she just cut the plastic stings off and used those. Clever girl! Several years ago I had them all laminated to preserve them but I did keep one of the orange strings just to remind me.

So, I guess I don't mind decorating the tree as much as I always complain I do. Maybe it is just that I am so slow at getting it done because I have to stop and look at the ornaments and think about how they came to us.....and maybe that is the best part.