Cass was worried the other night that Santa would miss Papa's house because Papa doesn't have Christmas lights up - and that would be a tragedy!
So today we went down to my father-in-law's, and put up his Christmas tree.
Cass, after all his fretting, was more interested in playing with other things than helping, so B and I put up the tree and began to unpack the ornaments.
I love the history that goes along with them, how a box full of old glass ornaments must be hung high in the tree, because those were from the first few Christmases that the newlyweds had all those years ago, and the cheeriness of the ceramic ornaments hand-painted by Bear's sister.
Rosey fell in love with a small statue of Mrs. Claus (I think painted by the same SIL?) and talked to it and patted it for awhile - it's about the same size as one of her dolls and if we had let her, she would have lugged it around happily.
There are always ornaments missing from year to year, and these are always in another box, one that noone brought downstairs. But the ones left are wonderful.
Last year was the first year the old angel that had been their mothers' was deemed too old and broken to be put up - now there is a star. Sweet, but without tradition, and I think everyone missed the old topper. This year B and I nixed the star (it was too tall and hitting the ceiling!) and instead strapped an ornament (another star) made out of jingle bells to the top, where it glitters in the lights.
A few pieces of silver garland, and we were done. We cleaned up the boxes and stepped back.
'She's a beautiful tree', said my father in law.
5 comments:
I love the family stories that go along with ornaments...and I love this post!
What a nice story. So touching that Cass was concerned about your FIL's Christmas. He must be a very kind and thoughtful boy.
Our tree certainly isn't one you'd find at a store all theme decorated, but the old glass ornaments on it are filled with sentimental value. When my sister and I were little my parents got us ornaments most years so that when we had our own tree we'd have old ornaments to decorate it.
I love trees decorated in ornaments that mean something, and dislike colour coordinated trees. Our's (when it goes up) will be a mishmash of colours. My mother had a massive collection of ornaments that my sister and i had made as kids, but unfortunately they were confiscated by the Saudi customs officers.
What a sweet post. I could just imagine R patting the statue.
Loved this post
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