The first Christmas tree after we got married was a scotch pine 6 footer that we hauled, ice coated and all, up to our 3rd floor apartment. After it thawed and was decorated with the few ornaments Jackie and I had inherited from our parents we spent that night in bed listening to the constant drop of needles to the floor. We actually wondered if any would be left by the time we got up in the morning. Some managed to last through the season and I really don't know where they came from but January 1st when I hauled that old tree through the apartment complex hallway, down the stairs and to the dumpster somehow I managed to leave a thick trail of old pine needles. Do you know how hard it is to get those things out of carpet? Rookie mistake.
Since then we have enjoyed quite the variety of trees and have added a very large collection of ornaments. We eventually switched from pines to firs. Our ornament stash kept growing until the kids started getting married and then they would take all of theirs that had been given to them over the years. At the big house we would get a 12 foot Douglas fir which had more than enough space for everything that we and the kids had and when we moved to the woods we substituted fatness for height and with a few less living with us we could still display everything.
A year after Jackie and I moved in with her mother our daughter Ceci gave us our first artificial tree, a slim 5 footer that she got on trade from Van Wieren Hardware, that we found a spot for in the basement. Helen had her real tree in the living room as always but this was ours, keeping us company in our little lounge area. Now it was pick and choose time for the ornaments but you would be surprised how many can fit on a little tree. We brought that with us when we moved back to Holland after mom died and it was that tree that Jackie and I put up and decorated today.
Jackie took it from the bag we store it in and as she was pulling the branches out she said "Hello skinny little tree." I offered about 5 times to run out and get a real one but she kept saying, "No, this will be good for this year. Next year we can go to Van Wieren's and get a nicer artificial one."
If you are like us when you put your tree up you need to play Christmas music. Songs like Come On Ring Those Bells by Evie were always our Christmas classics. But we didn't have Evie anymore. Jackie found our CD player and the cardboard box with the CD's. Right on top was a collection of 4 Christmas CD's that had not been opened. Thinking there might be something we would like I looked it over. I didn't want the collection of children's Christmas songs. Nor was I interested in the all choir version or the all instrumental one. That left me with the one with selections by famous crooners such as Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Perry Como and Bing Crosby. It was dreadful. Slow, Slow, Slow. And I don't know who has the rights for the good songs but I've bet you've never heard - It's A Marshmallow World - even as background music on the Hallmark channel.
Immediately after Marshmallow World misery I switched over to a Christmas collection done by contemporary Christian artists. That was more like it. 2000 Decembers Ago by Joy Williams was great and then I got a little tug in my heart when I heard Rich Mullins sing You Gotta Get Up. When it got to O Holy Night and Gary Chapman sang Oh night divine I actually fought back a tear. Moved on from that CD to Amy Grant and her version of Jingle Bells goes at about 100 miles an hour and is great.
Our little tree is decorated with all of our favorite stuff. First thing on after the lights and beads was a family picture that came in the shape of an ornament of Missy, Dan and their 5 kids. You know I needed to hang Captain's Kirk and Picard and Santa riding his tractor. Oh, and of course the little Santa with the Groucho Marx glasses and nose. The bulb that Jackie and I got our first year of marriage when we took a special shopping trip to Columbus is there as well as so many other types of angels and stars, next to the 3 kings, glass icicles, snow flakes, snowmen and glass bulbs with bible verses. And of course the green pickle which must be found by each grand kid.
On Jackie and my first Christmas together I had only known Jesus for a month. Like our first tree my frozen self had thawed and I would leave behind a large pile of old, useless needles. New life is forever but as a Christian I am being constantly renewed. Jackie and I have been so blessed wither we celebrate the anniversary of our Lord's birth in an apartment with a tree spray painted green, a home filled with a huge tree looking out at a grand scene, or in a basement far away from our kids and grand kids.
I tear up at O Holy Night because I am so small and One so great humbled Himself, becoming for a little while lower than the angels, born poor into a turbulent world. The kings brought gifts to the One who would be the ultimate gift. When I turn out the lights save for the tree and admire the colors and think of the memories I remember Who has bought me, and kept me, filled my life with a woman I don't deserve and blessed me with kids and grand kids. Praise You Lord!
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