Oh Christmas Tree!

My granddaughters and my great-niece decorated the tree last night.

A beautiful well-shaped eight foot tree. I always get a real tree - had to settle for artificial when I lived in Toronto. There's nothing like a real tree - the smell alone makes it worthwhile.

It is a real beauty with all the decorations on it. I had given most of my lights to my son - never intending to have a big tree again now that I felt my life was over.

My young granddaughter lives upstairs and has her own Christmas tree for the first time. She had extra lights that I was able to borrow so we could do justice to such a fine tree.

The tree is decorated in such a way that it is beautiful even in the daylight, with the strands of pearls alternated between the gold garlands. The red/green plaid bows, edged in gold, that my husband helped me make are proudly gracing the branches between gold angels. The most beautiful angel of all, with her cranberry red dress and her golden wings, watches over us from her place at the top of the tree. I remember the year I bought her. I fell in love with her, but struggled with whether I should buy her. Even though she only cost $35.00, it was more than I could really afford to spend on something like that. But here I am fifteen years later, loving her as much as the day I bought her, and still so glad I did.

Years ago, I worked out a policy with myself on how I choose to spend my money. If it is something I need, I get it for myself with no questions asked. If it is something I want, then I ask myself how bad I want it. Is it a want that is here today and gone tomorrow; or is it a want that I will always regret not giving into. That angel was one of those second kind of wants.

I remember the tree I had the first year I was back in the Bay. I asked my someday-husband-to-be's nephew to cut me down a Chrismas tree. "How big do you want it?" asked this youth who is over six feet tall.

"Oh, about my height," I answer from my 5'2" frame.

He comes back with this little short tree - a tree so short you can't help but laugh at it. I had never seen a tree so short in my whole life.

"Why did you get me such a short tree?" I ask laughing.

"I got you a tree just as tall as you are," he says towering over me. He then stands the tree beside me and measures with his hand from the top of my head to the top of the tree, with both of us laughing more by the minute.

I never knew before that day what a short tree I would make.

But, you know what, even short trees decorate up quite nicely; and that angel was just as beautiful on top of a short tree as she is on a tall tree.

Christmas is beginning to unfold itself to me - a magical moment here - a magical memory there. Put them all together and you have this year's Christmas - completely unique from other Christmases but with little bits and pieces of familiarity.