This afternoon I sat down in the living room across from the Christmas tree and just let the memories surround me. I decided to get my camera and capture some of the ornaments that we have had the longest. The angel on the top left my parents sent to me my first Christmas at Cottey College in Nevada, MO...so that dates back to 1966. The ball, angel in the tree shape, angel on the shooting star, and the egg ornament were hung for the first time on Woody's and my first Christmas tree in 1970. We married in 1969...but the first Christmas we didn't have a tree, as we went to our parents' homes to celebrate Christmas...first to Woody's parents in MO and then on to my parents in AZ...a long trip...and I was pregnant with Melany. We had some not so great snowy road conditions on our return home and decided that it best not to travel between TN, AZ, and MO at that time of the year! We moved to California in 1971 and that year and 1972 we did celebrate with my parents...one year in AZ and the other they came to CA. So in our 41 Christmases together we only celebrated 2 of them away from our own home. And, it became a tradition to exchange ornaments among family members each Christmas...one of the reasons that we have so many ornaments! The little choir boy with the yarn hair is also one of our early ornaments...it is one of the first Hallmark ornaments. Anyway, I just sat for a while this afternoon and enjoyed memories that different Christmas ornaments brought back to me. The ball and the egg are probably miracles that they still exist considering that they are quite delicate...one of the balls met its demise some time back when Melany was very little...she pushed too hard on one and broke it (she didn't get cut). Three of those balls survived...I gave Melany and Nathan each one to put on their trees when they married. The box of balls was purchased at a store in Tullahoma...long out of existence...Big K...long before the existence of K-Mart and to my knowledge no relationship to K-Mart. I still have the original box for those balls too...and a price sticker is still on the box (not much money by today's standards...but I'm sure that I felt that they were rather expensive back in 1970 (and probably got them on an after Christmas sale)!). The egg ornament still resides in the original box that it came in when not on the tree. It is a snowy scene of two people walking towards a church. The angel on the shooting star has had her wings hot glued back on and the little angel that hangs in the tree no longer has the pieces of wheat that were once attached to the top of the tree. Anyway...such are the ramblings of my memories tonight.
Woody and I went to Lowes this morning. Then I went to the grocery store and Woody went to the library. He has been reading and watching DVDs and ball games on TV this afternoon and evening. I'm still having a lot of problems with congestion...got "desperate" and made some Rotel queso dip this afternoon to try to open up my head! Verdict is still out...but it tasted good...and, that's saying a lot as most things don't have much taste to me at the moment.
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