Deck the halls with boughs of holly, Fa la la la la, la la la laaa! It's that time of the year again! My tree went up last night, or as my friend Nikki calls it, my triangle bush. My sweet child has been begging for a Christmas tree all week. "Mom, will it be green? Will it have blue, red, and orange? Is it time yet?" So sweet. My husband on the other hand has a standing rule that the tree should not go up until Thanksgiving turkey has been digested.
Every year when we have our tree talk, with me begging to put it up the week of Thanksgiving and him telling me not until after, reminds me of our very first Christmas together. We were newly married, expecting our first baby and I had my own tree that was meticulously decorated with matching burgundy and silver ornaments. After our first Thanksgiving I went to put it up and my husband gave me a look like "huh?" He thought a tree should be decorated for a child with every color and colored lights. I couldn't disagree more. Then came the compromise. A tree for a kid but with clear lights. So off we went to get a new tree.
It was hard for me to change my ways but as I look at our tree, five years later, I am so glad he pushed his opinion. Instead of having a tree out of a magazine I have a tree that is full of so many memories. I see our first ornament we bought together, Darth Vadar, who sits at the top and is extremely heavy, the ornament that my little sissy gave us to celebrate our first Christmas together, Mad's first Christmas ornament that I love so much, and the Blue's Clues ornament that made my little girl's face light up when she saw it when she was two.
As the years go by, with a new ornament every year, I can't wait for the day that I get to hand Mad's ornaments to her to decorate her tree and then maybe just maybe my husband will let me have a tree straight out a magazine again. Then again probably not, got to think of the grandchildren.
