Decorating My Christmas Tree

Today was the day that I planned on decorating my Christmas tree  I have most of my Christmas boxes of decoration sitting on the floor just waiting for me to open.  I know it's going to be a big job, it will take me most of the day, oh how I wish I could have some help, maybe a grandchild or two.  But wait...  I do remember one Christmas time....

It was the year 1994.  We had 3 grandchildren living with us for the school year, they were Jared 8, Carey 10, and Lorena 12.  We had planned to put our Christmas tree up this day, but something came up and I needed to go on an errand.  The children were disappointed as they had been looking forward to putting up the tree, so Grandma said they could start while I was gone.  I put the tree up, got the boxes down and they could start the decorating.  I told them that Grandpa was there if they needed help, so be good and have fun and I would be back soon..  Big  Mistake... 

I was gone for a couple of hours and when I arrived home and walked into the family room, my heart sank.  Every box was empty, not much was on the tree, but all the ornaments, ribbons, decoration, everything was all on the floor, sofa and every empty space, needless to say the room was a mess and with no walking space either.

Well, Grandma took her coat off, put her things away and then, 3 little grandchildren with Grandma's help, not only put the room together but we decorated the Christmas tree and even the house.

As I was putting my ornaments on my tree, I came across many of the ones that these same little children had made that year.  One was a red paper heart that Carey had made at Primary, it had a sticker of Jesus on the front and written underneath the picture was printed, "I will keep Jesus in my Heart."  I smiled to myself as I hung it on the tree, remembering that Christmas season with those precious grandchildren and all the other things we did to celebrate the season.  I thought, yes it would be nice to have some help with this tree, wish I could have 3 grandchildren named, Jared, Carey and Lorena here with me today,  I have my Christmas music on, we would talk and sing and share and I would even fix us some hot chocolate...We would have a good time, and yes, I would enjoy it..

In another box I came across an manila folder, as it opened there was a Christmas card from my daughter Marta, dated "Christmas 1990", along with paper cutout hands.  Each hand had a name of one of my children, or a grandchild written on it.

You see, at this time we were living in Texas, we had just sold our home, moved into an apartment, and only kept what we needed, for we were only going to stay there another 2 years until I could retire.  We had shipped all the rest of our furniture, plus our Christmas decorations to Utah where we would live after retirement.

Marta knew that we were not planning much of a Christmas, so she planned a Christmas for us.  

One evening when we returned home after work, in front of our door there was a package.  I opened the package and inside there was a small Christmas tree, 2 Christmas stockings, a manila folder and a Christmas card.
    The card read:
             Mom and Dad,
                    All good wishes
            for a Happy Holiday Season
              and a Bright New Year,

     This Christmas is sent to you with loving hands, - We love you
     and miss you and pray you have a happy holiday filled with
     memories of years past..-
                Love, Marta and Dave

     Place these loving hands upon your tree and know that we
     love you very much....

For the next few days the mailman brought me more envelopes with cutout paper hands, with the names of my family written on each hand.  Marta had contacted her siblings told them her plan and asked them to send us paper hands of their family.  That Christmas I had a tree with loving hands all over it and a heart that was filled with wonderful memories of years past.

Each year from then on, no matter what my Christmas tree was like, and this year I have a 9 ft tree, it always has those loving hands.

I also have a tradition that I have been doing since 1979, and that is making a Christmas ornament for all my children, grandchildren and great grandchildren..  This year I made over 40 of them. They too have special meaning, but I'll tell you about that another day.

I've finished decorating my tree, it took me longer than I had planned, I guess that's because there's memories attached to the ornaments that go on this tree.  But that's OK, I've had a good day and I think if I do say so myself, it looks pretty good.  My heart is warm and fuzzy.  and, Oh by the way, my Sweetheart said the tree looks pretty good too...