hello again!

As we were putting up the family Christmas tree, pulling out the ga-zillions of ornaments, it was so great to see all the ornaments my mom had bought/saved from me when I was a kid. Every year my mom would buy my sister, brother, and I, a new ornament. She always said that when we got older we would really appreciate them. Now I finally get it!
How simple a thing an ornament really is. Maybe it is colorful glass. Perhaps wood or plastic. String, yarn, or fabric. What struck me though, as I stand and look at my past on that present Christmas tree, is each and every ornament could bring me back to a different time. A different story could be told in the year that ornament was given to me. Or, when I was in kindergarten and I made that silly Santa ornament out of red and white strings. What was once silly is now special. The point is, my mom saved those silly ornaments for me to one day value and truly get the meaning of them. I get it!
Each year on the eve of December 5th, Mikulás Day (St. Nicholas' Day), traditionally celebrated in Czechoslovakia, we would put out our Christmas stockings and if we were good, in the morning they would be filled with candy and other kinds of treats. I don't believe I had ever received a piece of coal! As our children put out their own Christmas stockings for Mikulás Day, they usually will receive candy and treats as well..along with a new Christmas ornament to put on the tree. Our kids have quite a nice collection so far and they enjoy finding them each year as we put the tree up again. It is funny to see the Clifford, Thomas the Tank Engine and all the other childhood characters re-emerge again!
It is never too late to start a new family tradition, I feel. In years from now as your child is standing in front of their own family Christmas tree, how they will be able to look back and reminisce of their own childhood. A truly special childhood, indeed.