The Story of a Tree

Minsy checking out our tree.
Sorry for the graininess.  Still having to rely on
the iPhone for pictures until we replace our
camera that died in China. : (

When Herman and I were married more than 18 years ago the very best present we received for our wedding was a set of ornaments at our reception in Denver.  The couple who gave them to us had been married a very long time, and they included a note with the ornaments saying that they had a tradition of getting a brand new ornament each year of their marriage to signify the events of that year that they had spent together.  We loved those ornaments and decided to make that a yearly tradition for us each Christmas.  Every Christmas Eve we sit together as a family, read the Christmas story from Luke (and usually get the theater adaptation as well put on by our younger children), and then we open our ornament for the year.  Each year we have chosen an ornament that represented some significant event of the year.  Our first Christmas ornament was for our first Christmas together as a married couple followed the following year by a "Baby's 1st Christmas" ornament for Laney's birth two weeks earlier.

And so our large ornament collection began.  I love decorating our tree each year because I feel like it is an opportunity for us to reflect on the wonderful experiences and blessings we have had as we have traveled through life together as a family.  I pull out the 1st Christmas ornament for each child, their first year in school, the year Herman was hired to teach Spanish for the Waynesville schools, whenever we have bought a home, our fun vacations, and on and on.  Each little ornament warms my heart a little bit more in the middle of a cold autumn day as we decorate our tree for the season.

Savannah holding her braces ornament
in 2009
when she got braces.

Our tree isn't the fanciest tree in the world.  At a certain point we'll have added so many new ornaments that it might even appear gaudy to the world around us.  But to me it is a symbol of the accumulation of a lifetime of memories with the people I love most on earth.  It isn't just a fancy tree to decorate the Blau house for a month out of the year.  It is a temporary monument set up to recognize the birth of our Savior and the blessings in this life that we are able to enjoy as a family because of His gift to us.  We have now had nineteen wonderful Christmas seasons together as a family, and I know we are in store for many, many more.  So today I'm grateful for my little tree and the memories it holds of my wonderful eternal family!