memories

this is my christmas tree.

i think it's beautiful. (of course i do, otherwise i would change it up). you can't see all my ornaments, but it has quite a collection of random awesomeness on it. two simba ornaments circa 1993. the twelve days of christmas bells that were a promotional item when i worked at j.c. penneys in the late 80's. then angel in the maroon dress that i bought unfinished and painted. the sock monkey. the wreath with nate's name on it from 1st grade. whitney's ice cream stick nativity. you can't see the cow on skis that i got my senior year of high school. or the our first christmas ornament from 1995. steve's treble clef from his senior year of high school.

i love looking at my ornaments. all of them are special. some because of sentiment, some because they are pretty. steve and i put the tree up, he helped with lights and then i did the rest. i picked out exactly what ornaments to put on it. there are some i didn't get out. they have no "special" to them or i don't think they are pretty.

i am planning to redo my living room sometime next month. i was looking for hymns for a project and got out one of the old hymnals to look for my favorites, needing favorite hymns that happen to be in that book and laid out correctly. as i flipped through the pages the melodies rolled through my mind. memories of church as a child, my dad leading some of these hymns, my grandma playing them on the piano, two girls singing a duet of one of them in elementary school.

i've been alive long enough now and my kids are old enough that we actually have family traditions. nothing earth shattering. but things we do that are expected. it's familiar and comfortable. i hope they someday remember these fondly.

me and my memories. i hold on to some of them. i try to let go of others. christmas is always a time for walking down memory lane. it's a place on the timeline of life that rolls around every year. measurable. i hope next year at this time when i remember christmas past and years past that i have no regrets for how i spent 2013.