Just A Soopr Day: November 2010

O Christmas Tree!

Last night we put up our Christmas tree. This year the whole family helped rearrange furniture, bring the tree up from the basement, set it up, put on the lights and decorate it.

And it was good.

We ended the evening by watching one of my favorite holiday films, “Elf,” and I laughed. We all laughed.

I took a lot of pictures of the tree this year and of many, many special ornaments.

From 1971 until the late 1980s, I received an ornament from my grandmother or mother, and these are the ornaments I put on my very first tree and the ones I still hang on our tree every year.

Every year I tell the boys how old I was when I received the ornament.

The first one I received, in 1971, when I had just turned 6 years old, remains my favorite today.

It is a handmade ornament of blue velvet, blue stones and pearls around a satin ball. My late grandmother made it.

Another favorite is a ceramic snowman my mother purchased in 1975, when I was 10. She signed and dated the back, which means more to me than the ornament itself.

A simple snowflake dated 1978, when I was 13, came from Hallmark, which now sells millions of ornaments every year. It was purchased by my grandmother.

The list goes on.

Thank goodness my mother had the foresight to make my siblings and me a list of the ornaments we received, who bought them or made them, and a date, as some of them are without original packaging.

Because I have so enjoyed all of my ornaments, I started buying one or two each year for each of my sons so that when they set up house they will have a box full to share with their families.
This summer Will, who most often accompanied me to yard sales, found a beautiful porcelain angel ornament at one. It had been hanging on a peg rack since that warm day and he found it last night and made me take a picture of it on the tree.