christmas decorations.

Christmas has officially exploded at my parents' house.  The day after Thanksgiving is always decorating day - a day when the basement clears of the red and green storage bins, the fall decor comes down, and ornaments, snowmen, Santas, red cloths, carolers, wreaths, stockings and lights fill the house with Christmas spirit.

On the Christmas tree in the family room, are dozens of homemade ornaments.  In fact, there are no traditional colored Christmas bulbs on the tree.  Among the branches lie construction-paper hearts with photos of us as children, bulbs into which we put paint and shook them creating a marble effect, stars made from felt and glitter, candy canes made from beads and pipe cleaners, and so many more personalized ornaments.  This Christmas tree is beautiful in that it holds decades of memories on its branches.  We recall the stories of the ornaments as we put them up.

The best story is of a round, cardboard cut-out with a picture of a candle glued to it.  A hole at the top allows for a ribbon to put it up, even 29 years after it was made.  This particular memory hails back to the year my parents got married.  Too poor to buy ornaments, they made their own out of whatever they had.  Each year, they hang this one up together and remember their life together.  Years and years of memories are found in that small circle.