Decorating the Christmas Tree

The Christmas season is upon us in full force! I'm still trying to figure out how it got here! It took me a minute to get into the spirit, but I'm easing into it. W is totally into Christmas music on the radio, we sang Christmas songs at church this morning, and I put my wreath on the door, so I might as well dive right in and put up the tree! So, that's just what we did tonight! As an aside, I was supposed to work today, but was happy as a clam to recieve a 5am call asking if I wanted to stay home! That call came at a perfect time! Yay! Thanks to my work peeps and hope that y'all didn't have to bust your booties too hard while I worshipped, napped, and played with my family!

Here's my take on decorating the Christmas tree...It's like a journey for me. A journey down memory lane. A time to remember all of the cool (and not so cool) things that have happened in the last several years. We've always had a real tree. When I was small, we were hardcore and went to a Christmas Tree Farm and cut one down with an old timey saw and drank hot chocolate. As I got older, we still always got a real one. We would load up in my Dad's old Ford truck (which was his Dad's before it was his)...I think it was a 79 model? Maybe? But, the bottom line is that it was humiliating to Junior High and High School Amy. Crap, even College Amy was humiliated. It's nickname was Popcorn - because of the noises made by the muffler as it drove. Sounded just like good ole Jiffy Pop. Nice, huh? The hood was rusty as heck too. Nicer. It had a bench seat (like most trucks of its day) and we would load up me, mom, dad, and either a friend or boyfriend and head out to get a tree. Fun stuff! The only time that I wasn't a real-tree girl was when I was in grad school, I got a little fake 5 foot tree for my apartment. Anyhoo...Jimmy and I are real-tree folks. I love the smell - it is manufactured pretty well by Bath & Body works, but I love the real tree scent nonetheless.

As I put on each ornament, I think alot. Surprise, surprise, huh? Our lights remind me of our very first Christmas as an engaged couple...I helped Jimmy buy those lights and decorate outside of his house, which became our first home when we married. We were so proud of those decorations! As I put on the snowflake ornaments and the large stars, I think of the shopping trip to Gatlinburg in late November 2002. Me, my mom, Jimmy's Mom, and his sister all went Christmas shopping and spent the night in a hotel. His Mom & my Mom gave me some money to buy ornaments to put on our very first married couple Christmas tree...and these are the ones that I bought. We have some puffy snowman faces that I bought on that trip, too. As I came across the snowman holding an American flag, dressed as a soldier, who has "God Bless America" on his tummy, I remembered why he was purchased. In a post 9/11 world, we wanted to remember our troops who were away from their families that Christmas of 2002. As I hung the silver moose, my memories flooded back to our Alaska trip in 2004. I laughed as I thought about us Alabamians decked out in Ugg boots and sweatshirts as the Alaskans trekked around in shorts because it was the "hottest summer on record"! Jimmy and I laughed so hard as we pulled out the silver engraved heart that says "Our First Christmas - The Halls - 2002". That Christmas, I searched the world over for the perfect ornament to get engraved. I planned it out and dreamed about it...and I finally got it! When I took it to Things Remembered to get engraved, I wrote down & told them EXACTLY what I wanted. When I came to pick it up, it was less than stellar. It was CROOKED!!! Stinking crooked. I tore that lady a new one...(in my Amy way, so it probably wasn't bad to anyone else). I was so mad! The lady brought it out & said "do you like it?" and I gave her a dirty look and said, "uh, no, it's crooked. I was so excited about this and it is crooked!" Jimmy ended up paying & shuffling me off, but you just can't mess with a passionate girl with OCD! Really! We talk about that story every year when we hang the ornament. We have a special ornament from our first year as parents...a snowman & snowwoman holding a new baby. We have an ornament of our first niece, T. We have an ornament from Mama Trish for W from her first Christmas. We have carved snowmen from our trip to Normandy, France. We have ornaments from friends who just thought of us as they made them or bought them. It's just a journey of our life. It's beautiful. Just like life is. Yeah, sometimes it's messy and wierd and cluttery....but, you can always look back and see where you have been - what got you to point at which you are now. Probably my most favorite "decoration" of the Christmas season is our little silver frame that says "Our First Christmas". It has a picture in it of us posing in front of our very first Christmas tree. The room is empty, except for the tree. We didn't have a dining room suit yet. We were just starting out. We look 15...even though we were 24 and 25. I love to reflect on the years that have passed. I'm enjoying sitting back now in the darkness, with nothing lighting the room but the Christmas tree, listening to a softly snoring doggy and a loudly snoring husband and feeling majorly blessed.

Maybe when you put your tree up, you can take a walk down memory lane. It's so nice to begin the season in this way...it puts you in such a frame of mind to realize your blessings and to see how God has transformed you through the years and how He has had His hand on you all along...even when you didn't know it :)