When I walk into a store at Christmastime and I see one of those gorgeous trees that’s just right, just perfect — it simply stops me in my tracks.  I must look.

I stand and stare and drink in the perfection and they beauty, the crafting of this gorgeous work of art.

We had one of those in our house growing up, it was in our fancy-rarely-almost never used-sitting room.  My mom spent hours color coordinating the ornaments and ribbons and lights and doo-dads.  It was gorgeous.

However, the real tree, the family tree, the one that caught everyone’s attention and the one we gathered around and talked about — that was the tree with the family ornaments.

The Christmas after I was born, my parents and grandparents decided that each set would buy me an ornament each Christmas, something representative of the year, or what was going on in our life at that time.  Fast forward to me being old enough to help with the tree and realizing that each of those ornaments was mine.  Each ornament represented me at a specific time in my life, each ornament spoke volumes about the person who gave it to me and their perception of me.  This year, this ornament might have trumped all.  I got a cupcake tin ornament from Hallmark.  I cook, I spend my time creating recipes and baking and cooking for others, it’s one of the ways that I show my love and share it.

Fast Forward again —-  20 something years— when my husband and I got married and bought our house, my mom presented us with a giant cardboard box.  I was perplexed.  Until I opened it, and then I was breathless, on top of the box was the 2001 First Christmas Together Ornament from Hallmark, underneath it — my ornaments from my parents and Granny AND ornaments for Nathan.

I don’t know that I could have formed a coherent sentence, much less thoughts at that moment.  That box meant that our house, our first Christmas in our house, OUR tree — would be full of family and memories and the present and the future.  No buying new, shiny ornaments to start new.  The Christmas tree would be fully decorated and it would be filled with love, memories and family and tradition.

The power of that moment is unexplainable.  Nathan was equally overwhelmed, his family didn’t do that Ornament tradition.  He stated then and there that we would continue this tradition with our children, and we have.

Every ornament on our tree, every Christmas decorating the tree with our children is a walk down memory lane, a chance to share stories, to remember, to reminisce, to tear up a little at those not with us and to share, to pass traditions down to another generation.

Those ornaments are more than mere decoration, they’re a declaration of love, of family, of the past and the present.  They are stories and memories all carefully hung on a tree in our living room for all to see.