Our Story Tree

Last night, he had the joy of decorating our Christmas tree together.  It's something we've always done as a family and last night we were so happy to share that with T.  The best part about our Christmas tree is that is tells a story about us.  Our tree will never be department store worthy.  It will never have a theme, or matching glass balls.  It will never be featured anywhere but in our own photo albums.  Each ornament that we have tells a little bit about our history.  They've been collected on vacations, at specialty stores and online for a specific purpose.  They've been given to us as gifts from people who love us.  As we took each ornament out of the storage bin, we were able to tell T about where or who it came from and why it is special to us.  Here are a few examples:

One of the first ornaments that I ever gave B.  I like to write the year on the ornament somewhere and you can see that this one is from 2000.

We went on a wine tour in upstate NY around Keuka Lake with B's amazing aunt Cathy and uncle John one year.  We love them so much and treasure the time we share with them.

This is a more recent one B gave me.  He knows how much those silly Hoops and Yo-Yo characters make me laugh.  It was a year that I needed to smile a little more and he knew it.

If you've ever driven through RI on I-95, you've seen this giant blue bug on the side of the road.  You can also see this bug in the movie "Dumb and Dumber".  At Christmas time, they dress up the bug like Rudolph and he lights up the side of the highway.  I love this bug and was so excited to have a little bit of RI on our tree.

Some of our ornaments are more sentimental.  The reason behind these are hard to even write about, but through them, we can share with T more about her family and history.

We purchased this angel in the Outer Banks two years ago.  I had been looking for the perfect ornament that would represent the baby that we lost in 2008.  From the beginning of that pregnancy, I called the baby "Sweet Pea" and so on the inside of this angel, I've written "Sweet Pea, April 29, 2008".  Its a gentle reminder of the hope that was lost that day and then fulfilled with T's arrival.

This is "The Angel of Remembrance" from the Willow Tree collection that I purchased for B the Christmas after his brother Andrew passed away.  While B would never need an ornament to remind him of his brother, with this gift, I was able to show him that I would never forget him either.  I know how important it is to B that Andrew stays alive in our memories.  He even has a facebook page dedicated to him that even after all these years is very active.  Each year, as we take this ornament out of storage, we can tell our girls about their Uncle Andrew.

That same year, B had some ornaments made from photos of our cats and dog, and the one above.  This picture is the last one taken of the brothers just a month before Andrew's accident.  B is in the middle with M on the left and Andrew on the right.  This one reminds us regularly to treasure the family we have and every moment we have with them - you never know when it will be the last.

So, that's our tree and why I would never want it to be anything else.  It's the story of us and how we got to this point in our lives.