O Christmas Tree

 I love our christmas tree. It is not fancy. The decorations do not match. I could be that matchy girl, the temptation is there. But when it comes to Christmas I am not. The decorations on our tree are from this year and last year and 30 years ago. I have my favorites. There is one that my aunt painted for me when I was little. It is a blown out egg that she painted silver with tiny little candy canes and my name. It is beautiful. There is the snowman painted on a pretty piece of cut rock. I bought it when I was in fourth grade at my elemetary schools holiday bazaar. I loved it then. I love it more now. I also love the photo frame of Jeffrey and Owen from Owen's first christmas. Owen is just a few months old and has crazy brown hair that Jeff would not let me cut. Jeffrey is 3 and he looks exactly the same. I remember that Christmas perfectly. There are the two little elves we bought in Solvang. One is red and one is green. Two little blonde elves that remind me of those two little boys of mine. And they remind me of that day. It is a nice memory. There is the one with Mickey and Minnie kissing under the mistletoe. It was our first real Christmas together. We were in California that year and Disneyland was so crowded we could barely walk down Main street. There are nearly a dozen gold ones from the Baseball Hall of Fame. It became a tradition. We lived in Cooperstown the summer Jeff interned at the Hall. I was pregnant with Jeffrey and it was our little secret. We bought an ornament to remember that summer. My mom and dad have bought us one every year since. There is the star painted like Santa Claus. I made it in the Kingston Ward. It was my first Christmas in New York, my first time away from home. We hung those ornaments on a small tree Sister Smith and I cut down ourselves, in Sister Sagazies' backyard. She made us cocoa and sent us home with a bag full of groceries. It was one of my best Christmases. Our tree is full of memories. It is not perfect. There are 5 ornaments hanging from one limb and a big empty patch right in front. Not all of the ornaments are pretty. None of them match. But they mean something. And I love that.