Sunday, Dec. 11, 2011

Tree of memories

When we started decorating our Christmas tree, my 10-year-old daughter asked if me whether our tree would have a theme.

"You know, like all white ornaments, patriotic colored balls or even antique toys." I quickly realized that she had been watching too much HGTV lately and broke the news to her that our tree would, in fact, be theme-less.

Her annoyance faded as we hauled the boxes of ornaments down from the attic and began placing them on our 7-foot-tall Christmas tree.

I got sentimental when I saw the keepsakes celebrating each of my babies' first Christmases, and we were reminded how much we miss our dog Oscar as we hung up the figurine we had bought in his memory. I couldn't help but smile as I remembered my son's obsession with Lightning McQueen when I found the perfect spot for his beloved "Cars" ornament. And we talked about all the places we had traveled through the years when we pulled out ornaments collected from our family vacations.

While many sparkly ornaments adorn our tree, I have to say the prettiest ones to me are made with glitter, construction paper and Popsicle sticks. Or even better, the finger-painted ornaments with tiny handprints on them.

As my husband lifted up Trevor to put the Mickey Mouse on top of the tree, Laurel declared that our tree really did have a theme: our life as a family. And she was right.