Christmas Past

We decorated our Christmas tree this evening. What makes this year so different? Well, there are no kids to help or do it for us, this year; our youngest son and his wife have their own traditions to establish. And I don't blame them. Christmas tree decoration is for families and now they have their own. It's also one of the first years in a long time that my wife and I didn't argue; we both must have realized the importance and significance of working together as a unit.

We had very few commercial ornaments; the tree was covered with handmade ones from bits of felt, macaroni, lace trim, string, and glue. There was the metal juice can bottom that had been punched out like a sieve to represent an angel. There was a cookie cutter stamped out star with one point missing, my third son's picture glued in the center reminding us as to who made it and from the clothes letting us guess which year. A yellowed, slightly crushed angel made from a paper plate with cutout wings adorned the topmost branch; there was no name to indicate its builder. There was a miniature sled made from popcycle sticks, carefully glued together with the words "1980 Merry Christmas, Paul, Shore Haven" (the Lutheran Church we attend). A commercially made "Twenty five years together, 1990," ornament reminded us of our first holiday as newlyweds.

There were handmade ornaments from one of the four grandmothers, dotingly switched together. My wife told me they had been fished out of the trash when that grandma had given up her house and moved into the smaller quarters of assisted living. The ornament had come around—full circle; from lovingly crafted, hanging on a tree decades ago to worthless maudlin refuse back again to cherished heirloom reminding us of grandparents living during a Depression era Christmas. The simple stuff had much more meaning for us then the "Kodak Moment" material shown in the national slick magazines.

After the waves of nostalgia had come and gone, we realized we weren't really alone, we had the memories of Christmas Past to accompanying us. We remembered happy times and pleasant thoughts. We knew we had loved and been loved in return and we look forward to seeing our grandchildren's faces when they saw our tree.

K