When I was a young adult I always admired those perfect trees in the store and thought that's what I'd have as an adult. When Jeff and I got married and bought a tree for our first Christmas as a married couple I was excited to start our own traditions. Then came the discussion about lights. I had envisioned a beautiful tree adorned with white lights and gold decorations (so pretty, so peaceful). Jeff had a different idea and wanted the tree to be colourful. Hmmm. We ended up going with colourful lights (I admit they do look festive), and I bought some nice coordinating red and gold decorations. Fast forward through 13 years of marriage and our tree is far from a perfect store decorated tree, but it's perfect in my opinion. It's covered with decorations from various trips (a gold star from the Christmas market in Germany, Disney decorations from our various trips). It has decorations from my own childhood tree (thanks Mom!). And most importantly it has many homemade decorations from various stages of daycare, preschool and school aged kids. Kyle, Jillian & Leah really adore finding their own creations year after year. And it makes me smile to see how much they love hanging them on the tree.
And now my confession. The reason I gave in 13 years ago on the lights issue so quickly was because I wanted to avoid tinsel. You know those silver strands you hang all over the tree? Yep, that stuff. I saw Jeff eyeing some in the store and he mentioned how much he loves it on a tree. I quickly gave in on the lights and this quick thinking bought me a couple of years without tinsel. Then things got easier because Kyle was born and I was able to point Jeff to several articles on the dangers of tinsel and young children...we didn't want to put Kyle in danger for goodness sake! This is one of the areas where spreading out the kids over 7 years came in handy. Just as one kid was old enough to possibly consider tinsel, another was born.
But alas, babyhood, toddlerhood and even preschool years are behind us. It's been 13 years of a tinsel-free tree for Jeff and I was starting to feel a bit bad. Not bad enough to actually put tinsel on my big tree mind you. Which is why we have this cute little tree on our mainfloor this year. We originally had more decorations on it, but once the mountain of tinsel was applied I noticed we couldn't actually SEE the decorations, that's when I moved them back to our big tree. I admit the kids and Jeff had fun piling the tinsel on, they didn't stop until all 2000 strands were on this little tree (and the floor, and anyone who dares walk too close and brushes against the tree).Not sure if I'll ever have my perfectly colour-coordinated tree. Maybe one day. Although I can't imagine ever giving up my family friendly tree filled with memories!
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