Oh Tannenbaum

We put up the tree this weekend 

    I hung the lights and most of the ornaments today.  The old fir looks pretty good!

    I always get a little sentimental when I do the tree.

    When I was a kid, my parents lived in a third floor apartment in my grandma's building.

    There were 5 of us....mom, dad and the three boys.  It was a one bedroom apartment.

    The boys slept in the bedroom while the folks had a Murphy bed in the front room.  

    For those of you who don't know, a Murphy bed is a fold down bed.  It is built into the wall and in our case there were doors in front of the opening.  Open the doors, pull down the bed, go to sleep.

    The Christmas tree was also in the front room.  the apartment had a rounded part in the front room, which we called the living room, and the tree fit nicely in that space.

    There were a variety of tree lots in the neighborhood, but we always went to one on Ashland Avenue, if my memory is correct.  We'd buy the tree, usually a balsam, carry it home, trim off the base, and put it up.

    One year the tree decided to come down.  In the middle of the night.  On the bed.

    No one was hurt, but it was a mess. And there was a lot of yelling.

    The next day my dad drove some hooks into the walls and wired the tree up.  That became a standard practice.

    When I was talking to friend John today he mentioned his older brother cutting off bottom branches and using a coat hanger to wire them into place in bare spots.  My dad would cut off the bottom branches and drill holes in the trunk, sticking the pruned branches into the holes to fill the tree out better.

    Then there are the ornaments.  We have one or two made by Julia and 5 or 6 made by Emily.  I don't know why we have more of Emily's......I guess after so many years they get damaged and tossed.

    I trreasure the ones with pictures of the girls.  I hope teachers sill have kids make ornaments so that when the parents get old, like me, they have positive memories when putting up a tree.

    Theree are also ornaments from Bob and Anita.  They would get us ornaments with our names and usually the year.  It's funny to see them hanging and watch the progression of names from Julia, Emily, Jackie and Terry to Emily, Jackie and Terry to Jackie and Terry as the kids moved out.

    We have a lot of European ornaments on the tree.  German Cezch, italian, French, Irish, Swiss....it's as if we know someone in Europe.

    Glass ornaments, wax, wooden, plastic, metal......all kinds of materials.

    And all kinds of memories.

Peace and Love and Happy First Sunday in Advent