Last weekend, my husband and I joined the inlaws for the annual holiday tradition of cutting down the Christmas tree. It’s an event Nick and his family has been holding since he was young, and to be honest, it has started to become one of my favorite events of the season. With no snow on the ground during this year’s trip, we still made the best of it, goofing around, picking out “the perfect one” and then shopping at the gift shop after the tree is all wrapped up and ready to take home.
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| Tree train! |
I can’t believe I am saying this but this is our first year with a tree in our home. In the past, the effort of taking down the tree post Christmas seemed overwhelming, as we are usually off to a warm climate for New Years Eve. This will mark the first year (in a long time) that we will be home for the entire festive season, so it seemed fitting to get ourselves a tree.
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| It may not be Pinterest worthy, but it’s full of love. |
Once the furniture was rearranged, and the tree was up, I began to open up the boxes that my mom had given me a few years prior which were filled with all of my ornaments from her tree. My mom had a small tradition that she still holds up; she buys all of us one ornament each year. It sounds very simple, and it is, but it’s amazing the emotion surge I experienced last night while uncovering those ornaments. It was like a timeline of my life in a way. Each ornament had a memory and some with a date stamp reminding me how old it was and how many times my mother packed it away after each holiday season. As I hung each ornament up, I was able to explain to Nick it’s story. I have come to realize how thoughtful and touching a small gift such as an ornament can be at Christmas time. It is a sentimental gift that only comes out once a year to be enjoyed.
I now have adopted this tradition and give Nick and loved ones ornaments so that at each tree trimming, they can pull out the ornament and remember it’s story.
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