Our Own Little Tree

Tuesday, 25 December 2007

While we were in California, I reminded Chris how I am not used to "traditional Christmases". Chris got a little Christmas tree when we were gone, and we started collecting ornaments for Chase. When we got back, I looked in the closet for a box full of old ornaments and had fun decorating our tree with old ornaments my mom and dad had for us. I discovered homemade ornaments we made in elementary school, the yarn Christmas trees my mom used to crochet and sell at craft fairs, and even stockings and specially made ornaments that were engraved with our names. I had to throw a lot of stuff away as they were disintegrating in the box, but it was fun to go through things and conjure up old memories, memories of when my mother and father were still together and we used to do fun, festive things during the holidays, like driving around and looking at the popular light displays in the neighborhood and having people over for fun parties.

I even found the placemat we used to leave for Santa. Mom used to bake cookies and leave some on a plate with a glass of milk on the placemat. I remember waking up Christmas morning and being so surprised that some of the milk was gone and the cookies were eaten (even though Santa has to come through our front door here, since we don't have chimneys here in Hawai'i).

After my mom moved back to California, when I was 12, we never seemed to do the "traditional" things anymore. Towards the end of high school, we didn't even get a tree anymore.

It was strange to wake up this Christmas morning, in the house that I grew up in, but without my mother and father, or even my brother here. Instead, I now I have a husband and a baby, and we have our own little tree. Our tree is decorated with some old ornaments from the 80's, but we also have many new ones labeled with Chase's name and the year "2007". I gave most of our friends' kids ornaments as gifts this year, and I think I'm going to make it a tradition every year. We had fun finding new ornaments at places we visited during our trip to California this month. Hopefully, one day, when Chase gets older, he will enjoy looking at the ornaments, decorating the tree, and waiting up for Santa.

It's time to start our own traditions now. Even though we have a little tree this year, it's our own little tree (and there's a good reason why it's "little" --- Remember, we do have 85 stairs the tree needs to be carried down before it gets from our car to our front door!). After opening presents this morning at our house (and discovering we now need to make one of the bedrooms a toy room for all of Chase's new toys!), we made our way to the Halsalls to open more gifts and to eat dinner. We laughed at Chris' "traditional" wrapping of gifts (just think, lots of duct tape, masking tape, plastic bags, etc.), as we passed around the gifts (many collected from trips over the past year, and some even wrapped and forgotten from last year) and opened them one by one for hours.

Although Chase is still too little to even know what was going on for his first Christmas (but he does love his new blinking ornament!), our little tree is a symbol of our new little family, a symbol of new beginnings, and a symbol of new traditions.

We wished Dad a Merry Christmas, and although he is no longer with us, I know that he is looking down on us, watching over our little family, and smiling for our new beginnings.