Thoughts on our Christmas Tree

Today while the girls were at school Todd and I pulled out the Christmas decorations and put up the Christmas tree. Then we carefully sorted the ornaments into piles for each of the girls, put our own ornaments and breakables up high on the tree, and then sat down and enjoyed some Christmas music. When the girls got home we watched as they lit up with joy upon seeing the house, and each one put up their pile of ornaments. After the peace and quite of today (and no broken ornaments) I have vowed that this will become a new tradition-and maybe I will not dread the beginning of December so much! I also had time to reflect on the tree and ornaments as I carefully pulled each one out of the box. I was filled with a sense of love as I realized that most of these ornaments were from friends and family, and each one has a special story. Some were from Todd and mine own childhoods and have rich stories that we share with our children. There are football and barbie ornaments given to us by Grandma Milne when our tree was very bare, and we couldn't afford many of our own. Precious hand made ones from Grandma Jeanne, The Starlings, and the girls themselves. A great many new ornaments for each of the girls as I pass down a tradition of giving them an ornament every year. (This year they were Webkinz ones.) A rock ornament made by my grandpa strawn, and a white house ornament given to us by Todds Grandma Navine. One of the most memorable ones was given to us by Kevin and Rebecca on our first Christmas in Provo. They had made a Christmas tree out of a bottle of Sparkling cider and this was the ornament they placed on it. That was our only tree and ornament that year. I could go on and on , but I just wanted to share of few of the thoughts about our tree and the ornaments placed upon it. Christmas really is about love, the love of our savior that we try and emulate. We are truly lucky to be surrounded with so many good examples of that love.