Christmas prep

Well slowly piece by piece I'm bringing out my Christmas decorations and slowly before my eyes my house is transforming into a winter wonderland. Tonight's task though was the hardest, decorating the tree. A few tears were shed but the tree understood and didn't comment. I thought this would be harder than it was though.

I realized that my Christmas tree is full of memories of people and places long gone. There's the porcelain baby my Aunt Sue made me. The beautiful crochet and starched angels and snowflakes made by my Great Aunts whose fingers no longer produce these art pieces. Every year was marked with an ornament from my mom's parents Grandma and Grandpa Sattler until they were no longer with us. There's the little mice in a nut shell Grandpa Ginther made me before he passed away.

There's ornaments from every place I've visited in the last 9 years, the Millennium Falcon from Disney/MGM, an American flag star from Wisconsin beside the London phone booth ornament, a beautiful star from Versailles. The list goes on and on, looking at it I'm awed by the depth of memory and love a few ornaments can show so that now I'm sitting in the glow of the tree and feeling wrapped in love. While some ornaments were hard to hang, there isn't one I would have left off. Together they make a beautiful tapestry. Soon the sadness will fade from them and they'll bring back good memories and stories.

So if you have time this holiday season come over for hot chocolate and I can tell you some of the stories or we can just sit in the glow of the tree and visit creating new memories. I hope all of your Christmas prep is going well and that you are taking time to enjoy this beautiful season of waiting, memories, friends and family.