A few of my favorite things...

Before I got married (and the subsequent children,) I always dreamed of what my Christmas tree would look like. Yes, I had a lot of time on my hands. I LOVED going to Dillards and other department stores to look at the different tree displays to dream about which tree "would be mine." Ahhh, the themes, the color schemes, the fancy-schmanciness of it all. My tree was going to be pink and silver. All soft pink and silver with lots of diamonds (not real, of course--I knew I was going to be a teacher...hehe) and fur and bobbles. Several years into our marriage, I hung on to that pipedream. Until one day, a 2 year old Jackson ate one of the glass balls off of the tree. Uh-huh. You read that right. He ate....a glass....ornament. So, we didn't have a tree for several years after that. You see, by the time Jack was over his ornament eating, Sam had arrived. With red hair. We knew instantly there would be no Christmas tree for MANY, MANY years to come. As luck would have it, Sam didn't eat ornaments or otherwise de-frock the tree. We were pleasantly aghastsurprised and promptly put the tree back up for Sam's first Christmas. Since that time, we've accumulated various and sundry ornaments of a homemade nature. A shining star here (popsicle sticks covered in glitter), a snowman (dried dough with beads) there. And now, my department store tree is loaded to the gills with fuzzy ball garland, gold-metallic garland with stars....all mixed in with the occassional crystal swan, red glass birds, and stained glass stars. It's quite a sight. But I wouldn't trade my Charlie Brown tree for all the tea in China (well, maybe for some tea....I do love me a good cup of Black Nigrili.) It's worth it's weight in unmatched ornaments to hear the kids exclaim over the ornaments they made as toddlers, to see their favorite ornament from 'last year'--Santa riding a tricycle or little, wooden drummer boy carrying a wreath on his head. Sigghhh....now if I can just get my St. Lucia dolls finished....ggrrrr....