It's not about the tree.....

Over the past two weeks, our living room and dining room were completely jammed with plastic storage tubs galore filled with Christmas decorations. Since I can not decorate the way I love to, I have had to choose certain things that were a must. I spent lots of time going through each tub and inspecting each ornament. I came across 45 of the balls that Aunt Ree and I spent months creating. We used styrofoam balls and decorated with fabric, beads, pearls, sequins and anything else that we could find at Ben Franklin or Woolworths. (That gives you an idea how long ago they were made) They were our treasures and each year we wrapped them carefully in tissue paper to preserve them. She gave me the treasured ornament collection after I was married in 1984. I still have them and they are have aged over the years but they still contain the wonderful memories today from that precious time spent with her. Patrick and I went through another tub of all of his ornaments. Nita gave him a collection of Crayon ornaments for the first 8 years of his life and then when they were discontinued, she gave him Vanderbilt and other sport related ornaments. He has many ornaments that Mom gave him, some from her trips to New York, Austria and many with his name on them. He has a Big Bird that Tracey gave him on his first Christmas and several from Jacque that were made especially for him. When we got to the bottom of the box, I found this ornament in the picture. It was the first of many that he made for me over the years. He was 3 years old and attending Alta Loma Daycare. It is very worn and fragile but I wouldn't take anything for it. I guess the point of this post is that no matter how fancy the decorations, or how elaborate your house is decorated, the memories are the part that I want to remember. I am not going to be upset that our house doesn't have a tree in every room or that I didn't get to try to make our house look like all the pictures in magazines that I tore out to copy. As Tom Signs reminded Starr and she reminded me, " It's not about the tree".

Make a memory and treasure it.