O, Christmas Tree

When I was younger, my dad and I would play this game in the family room where one of our Christmas trees were. It was basically like I Spy, but so much more intriguing because it was Christmas time. One of us would find an ornament on the tree and the other person would ask questions to try and guess which ornament the other person was spying on.

I love(d) this game.

I think I love it because I love our upstairs Christmas tree. It’s a beautiful tree without explanation, but it is definitely one of those ‘homemade’ trees that professional decorators want to rearrange when they see. But every year on the day after Thanksgiving when we put the tree up, it is like unwrapping memory after memory. Sometimes I take for granted all of the ornaments and memories and I just hang them up so I can get on with eating a cookie or going shopping or something. I guess that is okay because som

etime during the Christmas season there would always be those still, quiet moments when my dad and I wouldplay the ornament game and Christmas would seem so…magical.

More than 80% of the ornaments were made by my great grandma. I know around Christmastime you miss the ones that aren’t here even more, and I think that’s why each year we put up the decorations my mom gets a little teary eyed. She talks about her grandparents, who I only knew for about ten years. Despite this, whenever I look at the Christmas tree I am reminded of my great grandparents and my grandparents and Christmas seems very real.

When I see the ornaments like this ice skate that my great grandma made, I remember the times when we were little and went to visit her in her old house.

She was probably one of the most joyful people I ever met with a real fiery personality. You could tell she was scrappy. Even though she was in her 80s, she was always so fun to be around. Every time we went over there, especially around Christmas, she would be sitting in her chair making ornaments. She would let us pick some and then she would tell us stories. I am not sure if they were 100% accurate, but they were good stories that got us interested. Some of them were about when she was younger and all these crazy adventures from living in an old farmhouse during the bitter winter months in Michigan. You could tell her other stories were a bit exaggerated (c’mon on though, good story tellers have to know how to sell their stuff!) but she had a way of telling them that made us all listen and ask more questions. I would like to think that I got some good story telling genes from her.

During our visits she always had an M&M jar and Jessie and I would take some and she would repeatedly ask how old Jessie was every six minutes. She started suffering from dementia, but she never lost that sassy personality. When I look at her old handmade ornaments, I miss her. I think I also miss a time that I didn’t even ever really know;a time of simplicity and slowness without the iphones, ipods, texting, and big screen tvs that nowadays seem to stress everyone (including myself) out and we don’t really understand the joy of not having a lot.

She also painted this ornament. It reminds me of my grandma and the cottage and how much she loves Lake Michigan.

Then, the ornaments like the one above. I especially like this ornament this year because I miss Huntington. But it is special because of how much my family cares about the university, and how much the university cares about my family.

And every year Jessie and I hang ornaments like these up we laugh. I think I made this in second grade. My mom loves these ones with our picture on them, but they just make me notice how I am wearing some sort of miniature shoulder pad thing and how 1995 must have been a great year to be in second grade.

I am pretty sure about 8% of our decorations on this tree are ones given to my parents from students. This one has been in our house since I can remember, and I fully appreciate it this year because I know how challenging/rewarding it is to strive to be the best teacher you can be. My mom definitely is one of those.

With all of these decorations, I find that special beauty of Christmas. Memories and reminders of love and peace and joy.

[Also, did you know that the history of the Christmas tree really did spring up from Christians trying to explain the trinity? It began in Germany. Then, hundreds of years later, thanks to these decorated evergreens George Washington was able to win the Battle of Trenton on Christmas Eve night: the German Hessian soldiers took a ‘break’ and went in to light an evergreen tree to be reminded of home. During this time, Washington and his men carried out their sneak attack. Cool, huh?]