Holiday Traditions

I am beginning to get more into the spirit of the holidays. Yesterday Patti and I went to pick out our tree. I always like to have a live tree in the house for Christmas. For the past few years we have had Douglas Firs but there's always a big mess afterwards with the needles. This year we decided on a Noble Fir and will see how that works out.

When Patti and I were married back in 1986, we began a tradition that has continued up to the current year. We purchased a special ornament, back then it was two bears in a hot air balloon with the message "Our First Christmas" engraved on a little heart. Since 1986, we have purchased one special ornament for ourselves, as well as one ornament for each of our three boys. We have a nice collection of assorted ornaments from all over the country.

Last night I had Matthew and Alex help me dig out the Christmas boxes and we began to sort things out. I found some silly elf hats with bells attached and tried one on. Alex got into the spirit as well and tried on one of the hats. I set out our little moving Angel that I named Gloria years ago. I also set out my little Christmas Elf that I found at a thrift store last year, much to the displeasure of my wife and boys.

Hanging the ornaments on the tree brought back a lot of memories. Many of them were purchased when we lived in Pike County, Ky from 1989 through 2003. We have one memorial ornament from the year the Twin Towers fell, another from our trip to Niagara Falls in Canada. There were Baby's First Christmas ornaments and several from places we have visited over the years like Christus Gardens and Dollywood in the Smoky Mountains of TN.

Of course, decorating the tree without holiday music would never do. Patti didn't want to hear any of the happy traditional stuff and I completely agreed. I put on Sting's new albumn "If On A Winter's Night" and after that Nox Arcana's "Winter's Knight". The latter happens to be my favorite Winter CD. With the sounds of bells, deep pipe organs and ghostly choirs, nothing gets me in the mood for the holidays more than this dark yet enchanting music.

With the tree up, we moved on to the next task... wrapping presents! This took much longer than we expected and by the time we were finished our backs were hurting, but we had lots of packages with colored paper to go under the tree.

I enjoy the traditions and rituals that we have followed over the years. Even when our oldest son, Ryan, left the nest to join the Army, we still continued to purchase a special ornament for him. By the time he, and each of our boys, is ready to get a place of his own, he will already have a large collection of ornaments for his tree. And each year, as long as we are alive, the boys will get a special ornament from Mom and Dad.