25 Days of Christmas - Day 11: Decorations from Dad

Day Eleven: Decorations from Dad

by MB

Hi, all!  MB here again!  The 25 days of Christmas continues!  If you remember back to Day 3 and Day 4, Ashley shared my ornaments of old and explained how I display them on ornament garland in my family room.  This year Ashley’s bluebird chicks came over and helped me hang them (I can’t help but smile right now just thinking about it).

Today, however, I want to tell you about the Christmas tree I have in my living room.  It showcases one of my most cherished ornament collections. I know, I know, another collection.  They can be overwhelming, but this one is really special. You see, the year I graduated high school ( I’m not going to reveal what year…let’s just say I had big permed hair and an occasional side pony...What were we thinking???), my Dad began bought me a Waterford Crystal ornament.  Every year since then, Great Grandpa Bluebird walks in at Thanksgiving with a beautifully wrapped Christmas package. He and I always find a couple minutes in the mayhem that is our family Thanksgiving to spend together while I open up the beautiful Christmas ornament that he has selected just for me.    

Let’s fast forward to a few years after this tradition started.  Poppy Bluebird and I didn’t have the money for a Christmas tree or much else that year, as he had a nearly severed his arm in bad accident at work.  Somehow though, a week before Christmas, we bought that year’s tree...trust me folks, there are angels everywhere, and we had one that year! I went to my purple plastic tote with my little assortment of ornaments, and I smiled as I pulled out each red velvet box that housed my beautiful Waterford crystal ornaments.  Since we didn’t have many, we took special care in hanging them in just the right place so the light would illuminate through them. Our little Charlie Brown Christmas Tree covered in crystal was the highlight of that holiday. It was our gift to each other.

I now have a 9 foot tree full of these beauties...and don’t you dare go and try to figure out how old that must make me to be able to fill such a large tree!  When my children were little they called this tree my “flower shop tree.” Not anymore. Now, when they come to my home, it’s the first thing they see, and they always comment on its beauty.  

Each Christmas, as I pull out the ornaments, they serve as different kind of “looking glass.”  Hanging the ones from the year Poppy Bird and I were married, the year we had Ashley, the year we had Nick, the year we bought our first home, I can go back in my mind to when I received each one from my sweet Dad.  This is one collection that will always have a very significant meaning for me, because each ornament is a reminder that through the years, my Dad thought of me when he selected that special ornamente for me to hang and enjoy long after he isn’t here with me.  I’m blessed enough to still have my Dad around to spend Christmas with this year, and for that I am so thankful.

This year’s Waterford ornament is the most beautiful snowflake, and it is hung front and center with a light placed right behind it.  Every morning during the holidays, I plug in my tree and enjoy my first cup of coffee in the quiet... just looking at it and thanking God for everything he has blessed me with over the years… just like I’m sure my dad hoped I would do when he started this tradition so many years ago.