Oh, Christmas Tree

Yesterday we decorated our tree. In the course of hanging our hodge-podge of ornaments, collected over more than twenty years, Anna commented, "I like it that you don't make us have all matching red glass balls and Santas, like some people." (Now, if you know anything about our family, you know this would never happen, even if we aspired to a new Christmas decor with fully coordinated colors and tasteful angels...but I was happy to hear those words). So Anna, Jeff, and I popped on an Amy Grant Christmas CD (tradition, after all) and "dressed" the blue spruce, each ornament eliciting another memory -- "I made that with popsicle sticks in Mrs. Ankeny's class." "There's the Swedish horse!" "That's my favorite, the painted globe you put in my St. Nicholas boot." We saved a few pieces of tinsel for Danielle and David, due home the tail end of this week from Grand Rapids & Grenoble. Voila, the centerpiece of our living room. Murpy isn't sure whether to avoid the tree or to pee on it, I hope he keeps his little doggie body far away.