Carl and I took the time this past weekend to put up our first Christmas tree! Even though we've been married for 3 years, this was our first time putting up a somewhat normal sized tree (it's only about 5 feet). The first year we were married we were in South America for Christmas and the past 2 years we were in Kingston and had a mini tree (maybe a foot tall). We made this year a special affair by putting on the Christmas music and breaking out some hot chocolate!
I've been collecting Christmas tree ornaments, well since I was born. I still have 2 ornaments that say "baby's first Christmas 1983". For at least the first 10 years of my life (maybe more), my mom would make us each an ornament or 2 for our little trees that my brothers and I each kept in our bedroom. Carl and I also started the tradition of buying a Christmas tree ornament from the places that we traveled. It's always nice to have a souvenir from places we've been, but what do you buy that you are are actually going to keep? We figured with a Christmas tree ornament, every year when we hang it on the tree we can reminisce of places we've been and things we've seen and done together.
Every single ornament on our tree tells a story of where it came from. It reminds me of the tree my parents put up in their house. They have a lot more ornaments that we do and again, almost all of them have a story to tell. I always remember decorating the tree as a family and telling stories about past adventures we're reminded of when we put up a certain ornament, or hearing a story from my parents as we hang up a decoration that they received when they were first married. Decorating the tree means so much more to me than just putting shiny balls on branches.
Needless to say, with my current collection and the one Carl and I started, we have already accumulated a lot of ornaments! I thought for sure a 5 foot tree ($10 Wal Mart special) would be big enough to hold all of our ornaments but alas, it is not! We may have to upgrade next year!
We of course made sure that Hannah was involved in the decorating fun and let her hang up her own first two Christmas ornaments!
Hannah seems to love trees in general - we keep saying that we think she'll be a botanist one day! Now she has one more tree in the house to look at and my hope is that one day, she to will appreciate the memories hanging on each branch!
