Oh Christmas Tree

     We started the tree decorating on a different note this year.  Typically, I like to push, pull, tug, and kick the tree from the upstairs of our garage, down the stairs, across the patio, and into the house.



     Unfortunately, last year that kind of treatment tore the bag the tree was in.  (Which was purchased to replace the box that couldn't stand up to such rough treatment either.)  It just tore more when I tried to tug it around on my own so I had to actually wait for Michael to get home from work and ask for help.  (Not in my nature.)

     Anyhow, together we hauled the tree down from the garage and, since they weren't being tugged around all over the place, the handles did just fine.  /Note:  We decided the two of us could easily move a body with this handy bag...so Do Not piss us off./

     Michael went up to do some work in his office and said he'd be back soon to help me assemble and decorate the tree.  Again, I am highly impatient and was 'forced' to (wo)manhandle the heavy sections of the tree onto the stand and connect the strings of light myself.

     By the time Michael came back down I had most of our cute garland up.  (Strings of "cranberries", little metallic packages, red metallic beads, and large metallic sequins.  Fun!)

     "Wow.  It's up already."  He said...entirely unsurprised.

     For our first tree together, back in 1995, I had the bright idea to buy gold and silver ornaments.  Neither of us had much in the way of decorations and I figured I'd go for a matchy-matchy type look.

     Booorrrrinnggg!  That lasted a total of one Christmas.

     The next year I found some painted kiddie ornaments in bright metallics.  (Trains, and snowmen, and toys...and candies!)  Way more our speed.  Those cheerful ornaments have been the base of our tree ever since.

     But for the majority of our tree the basic theme now is:  RaNdoM!

     Somewhere in the last 18 years together we had the idea that Christmas ornaments would make great souvenirs from our travels:  nice reminders of our trips, inexpensive, and easy to pack.

     Getting out these ornaments each year has become like reunions with long lost friends.

     We say:  "Yay!  Mr. Sunburned-tummy Snowman from our first (and only, so far) cruise!"

     We smile and get misty over two ornaments beautifully painted with red and gilt leaves that Michael's mom, Ev, bought for us at Harrod's.  I took her on a London layover with me and we had such a great time.

     We laugh when we see a gold and red package we bought to replace one just like it, because it reminds us of the time tiny Kristine, who was on a big ladder...narrowly escaped a free-fall into the tree.  (Yeah - sorry - she wasn't hurt, so it became funny.)

     There are tons of ornaments from the six months we lived on temporary assignment for Michael's company in Hamburg, Germany.  The Christmas markets were the highlight of our time there.  They lit up the town with light and sound, and the spicy smell of gluhwein.  We have a little cart ornament that's filled with toys.  It has an American flag hanging off the back.  It was the Christmas after September 11 and I was wildly homesick and worried.  It was comforting to have that flag on our tree while we were so far from home.  And it felt like a friendly gesture to find it in a shop in Germany.

     We have an ornament of the Taj Mahal.  We got it the year we went to India...but I bought it after we got back...at World Market.  (Sigh.)  In spite of a large Christian population and the fact that there were decorated Christmas trees everywhere we went...no one could tell us where to buy any tree decorations.

     We have little metal cutouts from various national parks...The Redwoods, The Grand Canyon, Mount Rushmore.  I kind of feel bad every year hanging up those presidents.  Somehow, I just don't think this is how they'd like to be commemorated.

     Some of our favorite ornaments came from a visit to a Christmas shop at The Biltmore.  We went there when the kids were still little on a day trip from visiting Michael's mom and siblings in South Carolina.  We got a set of light covers that look like cellophane-wrapped peppermints.  They really brighten the whole tree.

     That and a bunch of glass icicles are elements that pull the haphazard mementos together.  They're sparkly and pretty, but the best thing about these icicles is bickering each year over where we got them.

      I used to say we got them in Germany and Michael said we got them in Texas.   But now I like to sometimes say:  "I think these came from Garden Ridge in Fort Worth...so Michael can say:  No way!  We bought those in Hamburg!"

     /Relationship Tip:  Randomly changing sides is crucial to keeping bickering fresh and fun!/

     The thing that really makes it all work is a quilted tree skirt my mom made for us.  She made it to commemorate our first Christmas in our restored home.  It's made of gold lame', with red, yellow, and blue velvet, and white satin in a tumbling blocks pattern.  It's a work of art.

     Even the tree itself has a story.  Our old tree was getting ragged and the lights weren't working, At about the same time friends were downsizing from a suburban home to a downtown apartment.  So their tree came to live with us.

     Our funnest tradition is to don our holiday glasses to decorate the tree.  (And for any evening during the holiday everyone has to wear them and stare at lights.)  These magical glasses turn the lights into dancing angels, snowmen, stars, gingerbread men, etc.  We have a pair of every kind we've ever found.

     /Holiday Hint:  Christmas Glasses make even the most mundane evening at home around the holidays a Festival of Light and Motion!!!  As this ad says:  http://www.amazon.com/3D-Christmas-Glasses-Holiday-Transform/dp/B002W5747I    They're a "surprise for the eyes!"/

     One of our most popular ornaments is our Chubby Ballerina.  We got her on a trip to Eureka Springs, AR.  Something about her spunky, proud carriage says:  Just be yourself and have fun!

       We have ornaments from friends, families, weddings, and parties.  There's a dragon from Poland, a Bavarian man with a stein in his hand from Munich, a long-legged pink flamingo in a bikini, Santa in a kayak, a reindeer wearing ice skates...

      Strangely enough, this big jumble of hand-me-downs, gifts, and stumbled-upon items traces our relationship, our friends, our family...our history.

     And it keeps getting more and more beautiful as we add memories each year.