It's no secret that my holiday spirit has been lacking in the last few years...with my mom passing away at Christmas time, and the kids getting older...I kinda have been slacking. I held on to my tradition of decorating our home the weekend of Thanksgiving...but with less gusto than I used to have. This year feels different....and all because I picked something up off the floor. I was dragging out the tree and the holiday tubs...something caught my eye on the floor, I leaned down to pick it up. It was a piece of white paper. On the backside of the paper was a small hand print and a picture of Elliott from kindergarten...it was the ornament he made that year. This ornament should have been stashed away...I find it odd that it wasn't. Finding it spurred my momentum....and my holiday spirit. This ornament inspired the theme of this years tree...every ornament had to have a memory. Last year I decorated the tree in glass balls and my blown glass ornaments...while those have memories too...the ornaments on the tree this year are different. There is the beaded candy canes my grandma made, a snowman crocheted by Lee's grandma, Mason's Lego fireplace, our Hallmark ornament from the first year we were married, and one of my favorites..the Thomas The Tank Engine ornament that Elliott carried around instead of putting it on the tree...the wear and tear shows how much he loved it. All of these special ornaments are in a box (above) that is just as special to me as the ornaments is holds year after year....this box contained the gifts from Lee's grandmother and grandfather in 1993, it was the last holiday package we received from them (Lee's grandmother passed away in 1994)....it is a heavy duty box...it has held ornaments for 18 years, moved 6 times and still makes me smile when I see it. Sounds silly to love a box....but I do love this one!
This Santa was the last Christmas gift I really got to give my mom....she loved Santa's. This one is about 18 inches tall and this year is standing beside our tree....watching over the gifts that hopefully Santa will bring!! It is packed carefully in a special box as well...and each year when I open the box, unwrap Santa and straighten his hair and robe....I cannot help but shed a tear. I miss my mom most at Christmas....and even though I get a little emotional and sad....I need to not let my sadness take away Christmas anymore. Instead of going through the motions of the holidays, I want to embrace them....and hold onto them, and make another memory....for next years tree filled with memories.
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