Christmas trees have always had a special place in my heart during this season. As a kid I loved to climb behind the Christmas bush (our trees were always very full) and lay down on the floor and look up through the branches at the lights. I loved all the homemade/kid-made decorations we put on it and always looked forward to putting on my favorite ornaments.
Our first Christmas tree following our marriage was a little bit... different, though memorable (I made it out of a Readers' Digest--Trisha that magazine you sent me came to good use)
The following year... we were moving... it wasn't very high on the list of things to do for one of the two of us... I was pregnant and tired... we didn't get a tree.
One more year... My "dream tree" priorities had to be humbled. Is the tree really that important? Or is it the memories we make? Our tree did improve. It wasn't anything like the trees we had while growing up, and it definitely wasn't fancy, but at least it was real! It was even cute and alive. I was happy, though I did put up a fuss about some of the decorations Stoyan tried to put on it (tin-foil icicles and cotton-ball snow). Some families have the weirdest traditions, or is that just my husband? ;)
Well, this year I was determined not to wait until last minute to get the tree. At Thanksgiving we went and bought our permit and (I hope) started a new family tradition of going out and getting our Christmas tree.
We went with Owen and Jenell's family. We had a great time and found our tree. Hurray! The only problem we encountered was how to get it home. It definitely wouldn't fit in our car and tying it on top didn't work either. Thankfully Owen and Jenell were able to bring it up last week. It even came to us a little cleaner than when we cut it. (They went through the car wash with it in the back of their truck.) Stoyan and Victoria decorated it on Monday for Family Home Evening. I started putting the lights on, but Stoyan seemed to want to do it, so I let him finish it up. He did a very good job.
Four Christmases, four years to make a lot of Christmas tree memories and four years to get over my "dream tree" ideas. I am thankful now I could watch my little girl and husband make memories together while I sat and held the baby and we formed new family traditions with a little bit of this and a little bit of that from both of our families. The decor doesn't really matter (though I did request we not have any cotton-ball snow and purchased those silvery stringly "icicles" as a compromise instead of tin-foil) and the size, shape, and color of the tree isn't such a big deal. And I must admit though I haven't liked the silvery stringy "icicles" since I was a little girl, they do make the tree sparkle.
It's a beautiful tree!
Victoria really liked the little train we put under the tree.
