The morning is lovely. The sun is eye squinting bright. The blue sky hasn’t a single cloud. It is Crayola blue, the same color of all my skies. The day is so calm not even a single leaf flutters. The dogs came in for their morning biscuits then went right back out. Dogs know how to enjoy a day.

The pile of packages in the corner of my bedroom gets higher every day. They are safe behind large boxes and a chair, but Nala keeps checking them out just in case. She did steal a Christmas Pez, but that was before I fortified the corner from attack.

About this time we used to make construction paper circles to put around the tree. We’d sit at the kitchen table cutting and pasting. My mother would wind them around the front of the tree. I remember when I first bought this house. I had very little money for Christmas decorations, but I did buy a small tree. I couldn’t imagine my house without a tree and the sweet aroma of pine. I decided to make some of my decorations, especially the colorful construction paper swag. I went old school with glue. I cut out the circles and attached one to the other. The swag was beautiful. I wound it mostly around the front of the tree. A few days later I heard a sort of popping sound. I went to check the tree. The circles were popping off the swag, so much for the glue tradition. I stapled them all. I used that swag for years until the colors faded. I replaced the swag with silver tinsel strands just like the ones my mother used to wind around our tree. I traded one childhood memory for another. I still use them on my tree. I also use glass ornaments my mother gave me which used to hang on our tree. The decorations on the bulbs have faded a bit, but that makes them no less precious. My mother and father are always part of my Christmas traditions.

This entry was posted on December 2, 2022 at 2:52 pm and is filed under Musings. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. Both comments and pings are currently closed.