For Monday , 12/01/2025
Since it is the first day of December, I thought I would revisit my first Christmas post. This is a chunk of my very first “Christmas” blog post from 2017. Christmas will be a little different this year, so these family memories are even sweeter this first Christmas without my lifelong best friend. I wanted to repost a piece of it to get the Christmas season going, for me if no one else!
I had a long day of lazing around, watching Christmas movies and spending a lot of time gazing at the Christmas tree and the lights that cover most every branch. This is the “family” Christmas tree that has been over sixty one years in the making. It contains ornaments all the way back from when my parents were first married.
My mom and dad decorated the Christmas tree until I was seven years old. That is when my dad and I started decorating the tree together. Then, sometime in my middle teen years, the Christmas tree became my thing. Back in those early days it was all about the garland and tinsel. Once I was broken from icicles (which was quite traumatic, as I put them on and placed each one gingerly and lovingly,) I noticed that you could actually see the individual ornaments. So, now-a-days, there is no garland or icicles and those ornaments, old and new, store bought and hand made, silly and serious, tucked over and around the many lights all come together to form something more than a Christmas tree. It is a memory tree!
Most every ornament, that has been lovingly placed on this tree, has a specific memory attached to it. From the gold, red, green and white star at the top of the tree (that was bought the year we moved to Kentucky because the angel stopped working,) to the ugly plastic bells, which are my priceless treasures (that were part of my parent’s first Christmas tree,) to the rocking horses (acquired when we first moved to Tennessee) and twelve days of Christmas globes at the bottom of the tree (that were purchased by a friend), they are all part of the story of this tree and the story of the life of our family.
No, as a family, we are not together the same as we used to be; but those ornaments on that tree still have the power to evoke an instantaneous flood of memory and emotion and it is like we are all sitting around the tree on one of those way-gone days and feeling the joy that is Christmas.
I could go on and on and tell story after story about the ornaments, keepsakes, memories on this tree, but I won’t. I will just say that each time I gaze at the sparkly, seasonal visitor in our family room, I am taken back to special memories and moments that have made up my life.
I hope that you, too, have something special in your life that is able to make you feel all happy and warm and loved when you are in its presence.
I want to wish you you a wonderful, and blessed Christmas season and hope that you will take some time during these hectic days to just sit still and allow long forgotten memories to roll in and all around you.
Also, take some time to read the Christmas story from the Bible. For this, truly, is the reason for the season we are in now.
Merry Christmas and God Bless you!
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What is your relationship to the all-knowing God of the universe? Do you know Jesus, the One Who came as a a tiny babe that first Christmas Eve? Do you know the peace that can come only from an intimate relationship with Him? You can know Him. Jesus Christ, God’s Son, born into human flesh, sinless, crucified and giving His life freely, buried, arisen on the third day, will come into your life and change the outcome of your eternity. You just have to be willing to believe and accept His truth.
Here is an excellent website that can give you additional information about making your decision for Jesus Christ! PeaceWithGod.net
Restricted Vision, Unburdened Sight 