Oh Tannenbaum

Today we did one of my favorite family activities. We hunted down the best balsam fir on the entire farm, cut it, tied it to Velma the Volvo, and brought it home to begin our Advent/Yule festivities. To make it even better, it began to snow just as we were pulling into the farm. By the time we got out to the field, it was snowing horizontally and quite blustery. That made for some quick picking!

Little E declares that decorating the tree is her favorite activity of the entire year. She has become a very able lighting assistant. I like a thick mixture of small white lights strung toward the inside of the tree with the big multicolored ones clipped to the outer branches. After a number of years of me telling Mr. Mess that he wasn't doing it right, it is now my job to string the lights. While I'm putting on the lights he's selecting an array of holiday CDs and mixing amazing martinis. It makes for a very festive occasion.

We have a very eclectic selection of tree ornaments. (Did you expect anything else from me?) Every year the girls select a new ornament each while we are out doing our holiday shopping. Some years we've gotten them at a store during the local "Christmas Walk" or from the shop at the tree farm. Other years we'll just see some at a craft fair or store that they like and pick one up. For a while they had themes they worked on. Mini-me had blown glass angels for many years and then icicle shaped snowmen. Before the girls were born I bought every ornament I saw that had a grey tiger cat (like my old girl Penelope) or a black lab. I also have a few Bernese Mountain Dog ornaments (not so easy to find) and other cats of different colors. I do need to start looking for white cat ornaments for the Milk Brothers. We also try to buy an ornament from wherever we may go for a family vacation throughout the year. In addition to these the girls have collections of Hallmark Keepsake ornaments that they've received from my sister Brenda. Each time a new niece or nephew joined the family she'd select a new series that year and start them on their own collection. Mini-me has the series of Disney Princesses; Snow White, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty. Little E has the Madame Alexander doll series and the Madame Alexander angels. They cherish all these special ornaments and recall memories of when and where each one was received.

We also have small collection of the truly weird and frankly, ugly, ornaments. Most of these have come from the family ornament exchange at Mr. Mess' family's Christmas get together. It started out as a nice friendly ornament exchange that has devolved into a competition to see who can bring the weirdest and wackiest ornament, and who gets stuck with it at the end of the night. For the most part I've been quite lucky in what I've been stuck with able to add to our collection. This is how I acquired my German Pickle and my Funky Santa and Christmas Peppermint Fairy. But I also added the ugliest frog and the cherry pie on a plate via this venerable family tradition. Nothing made me let out a bigger sigh of relief than when I could safely pass on the Jar Jar Binks ornament a few years ago.

Of course my most cherished of all ornaments on my tree are the truly one of a kind. The ones that every mother loves the most. These are the glitter and tissue paper wad creations that your young children grace you with every year. Some are the result of a creative Sunday School teacher, school art class or teacher gift. Others are just sprung fresh from their fertile little minds with whatever found objects that they can find. And some are the result of a few dollars squirreled away here and there and an opportunity to shop at their discretion. All are special and were given with that true unadulterated love of giving that we all tend to forget about at this time of year. They really help us to remember the importance and meaning of a gift truly given. I hope your tree is covered in such gifts this season.