Saturday, December 15, 2012

Oh Christmas Tree: Part 1

Usually this bit of green tat is dragged out like a phoenix in the beginning of December but not this year. The two offspring who are normally responsible were not available until last Tuesday when they and a trio of cousins resurrected it on the patio and hosed it off for me. I swear it gives me hayfever all Christmas otherwise.
It also makes me all nostalgic. This tree was purchased for the princely sum of twenty dollars for the first Christmas of B1 and B2. It was a hasty purchase from the supermarket and has always been a bit bedraggled with a definite tendency to 'dress' to the left. That is, it leans dangerously. Extreme tree!


Then, every year, I spend time perusing the old decorations and reminding the children of the historical significance of each piece of schmaltz until I find myself alone with the untangling.


Even when it is up there is always tweaking to be done and the folded laundry lends a festive edge to our home regardless of the season. That's what I love about laundry. It makes no distinction and will clutter up any special occasion without bias. There are, of course, less domestica decorations to be admired and discussed.


This one is from a set of crystals from the Scottish nanna given when the first two were christened.


This delicious big glass blob was a post Christmas buy that reminded me of the old childhood baubles. The Ikea stripey garland is making its first appearance this year.


When B1 and B2 were in preschool we made clay hands of all the children and fired them for posterity. Since I was the one making them, I got all my (then) four to produce these mementos. This tiny hand belonged to Lala when she was four. They all like to hold them up every year to marvel at how their hands have grown.


This little clay angel came from the main square in Prague in 1996 and was one of our first joint bits of Christmas bling....


but this one was the real first for our family. It was given for our wedding and it has adorned the tree every year since.


8 comments:

  1. Beautiful decorations. I like the legs of your tree.

    Unfolded washing is like an annoying relative you just can't shake ... always hanging around, never doing much but sitting there watching and commenting and taking-up space. 'GO HOME WASHING!'

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  2. Your tree and all the memories hanging from its branches is (are) lovely Annie.
    Like you I have a washing basket full (half of its contents have spilled over onto the floor), unlike you none of it's folded, AND we still don't have a tree! (we have one, but it's covered with spiderwebs in the shed)
    I might start a new tradition...we'll go all European and decorate the tree on Christmas Eve...

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  3. I have two trees..the BIG tree, which we bought pre children, ridiculously huge, and the ornaments are fragile and so they stay in the box, along with the tree......the tree we have now is just for the kids, and they love it...its a mess of memories...when they open the box each year, I can hear them say, oh remember this one, remember this one...how old was I when I made this one mum, its how it should be........the laundry is always in our loungeroom, either folded neatly in piles along the top of the lounge or still crumpled in the basket...or growing on the chair in a monstrous pile of ironing....its just part of our home................glad to see the tree is out...I too took a long time this year to get the tree out, but now its there sparkling away, Im glad..............x

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  4. How wonderful to have so many memories tied up in the tree and it's decorations. No tree of any kind here yet, in fact I've barely begun Christmas!

    Your last post sounds really positive ... so happy for you that things are looking up x

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  5. I love your meaningful ornaments. We lost all of ours when the babes were young as the movers left them behind when we moved out of province. I still feel sick about them. That laundry is a pain in the patootie.
    xo

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  6. We do just the same at Christmas - always great excitement opening all the boxes and trying find a space for the tree amongst our other daily trappings. Yours looks lovely! Have a very special Christmas. Axxx

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