This year was JoAnne’s and my 50th Christmas. The grand tree pictured above as the centerpiece of our Christmas decor this year (2019) is our 50th Christmas tree. This year’s version (an artificial tree) is complete with train village and beautiful snowflakes made by our grandson. (For you who subtracted 1970 from 2019 and only got 49, please remember that in counting our Christmases, you count both 1970 and 2019 which will result in a count of 50.) I could not help but reflect how things have changed over the years. Memories flooded my mind and I paused again to count my many blessings. My mind went back to what our tree looked like on our first Christmas together.
I was looking at a photo album the other day for something else and there it was–a picture of JoAnne’s and my first Christmas tree together. What a contrast between the small little coffee table version that brightened our mobile home living room and the what is the focus of Christmas trim in our living room this season. That first Christmas tree was the natural kind you get by finding a tree growing out on the home farm and cutting it down. Sometimes we thinned a stand of trees and used just a top for Christmas. Notice that on our first tree, many of the ornaments were homemade. JoAnne made small holes in both ends of egg shells, blew the contents out, and then painted the shells and attached strings. You can see gold, silver, and green eggs on the tree. I made ornaments by folding cardboard into geometric shapes and covering them with foil wrapping paper. Then we added candy canes and tinsel. Notice that the side of the picture says April, 71. That was when we got the film developed. Remember those days?
If you look closely on both trees you will find this ornament. For the record, it is a homemade dodecahedron with the original foil wrapping paper. But what is special is that it has hung on all fifty of our Christmas trees. It has gotten a little shabby looking so some years JoAnne insisted that I hang it in the back, but it has been there to witness all those Christmases. It has appeared in seven or eight different houses. That makes it special.
