In Boise, though, we have shoeboxes upon shoeboxes of ornaments and other decorations that fit in a couple giant bins in the attic. That's what happens to a family, I guess, after many years of saving stuff we made as kids, receiving ornaments as gifts, and even buying a few ourselves.
One thing I truly missed this year was opening these boxes of ornaments, hearing my mom and dad laugh about how on earth they still have that one, or better, my mom asking if it isn't about time they thinking about retiring a few and my dad responding along the lines of, "But Elvia, this is the ornament that [insert story from Christmas of {insert year}]!" It's true. Walking around the tree is like revisiting snippets of family history, and even though a bunch of it happened before I ever came on the scene, I know most of the stories. And yet, for awhile I think my mom has wanted change things up a bit and try out something new, like put up ornaments that go with the others in some sort of fashion. Specifically, she has wanted a tree full of butterflies, for years.
When I got home and took my first look at the tree, I noticed that not all of the ornaments I remembered were there, but a good majority of them were - at least the important ones. New this year, though, were over 70 butterflies. When I thought about it, it was almost like another story in itself in how they are practically iconic in our family of my Oma. I could go on about how sentimental and touching it was to see the two things meld together on the tree, but for now I'd just like to say that the tree looked really beautiful.
Now it is, once again, taken apart and packed away for another year (and how foolish of me for forgetting to take a photo of it while it was still up).
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My father, at some point in his Christmas decorating career, officially gained the title "The King of Christmas." This was after he acquired the entire ceramic Dickins Village.
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