We live in a town that has many well-manicured homes and yards. The kind of place where this time of year brings out all of the Martha Stewart style holiday decorations – color themes, perfectly lit, matching sets – you get the idea. Well, with one eye on the increasingly busy calendar we hauled out our boxes of Christmas decorations this past weekend and set about putting up the tree…
Our tree is a smallish, artificial tree that was handed down to us by my parents. I’m not sure how old it is. A few fake limbs have come off their hinges and are now held in place with twist ties (which fascinates my daughter…twist ties are just one of her odd obsessions). Even though it is a fake tree it also sheds needles like a real tree two weeks past its prime. But money’s tight…and this tree is free…so we keep putting it up each year.
I carefully string multi-colored lights on the tree, weaving them among the branches and inevitably run a little short before I get to the top where the lights suddenly are a little sparse. The plastic multi-colored star tree-topper doesn’t quite make up for the imbalance. This year the strands at the top don’t even match the ones at the bottom because two strands quit working sometime during their storage time and we had to buy replacements. Oh well, time for the ornaments, which include:
- Wooden figures hand-painted by my mother about 40 years ago when my brother was a toddler.
- Silver bells that are left over favors from our wedding almost 10 years ago.
- Unbreakable pink and beige balls donated by my sister-in-law, and (at least) 30 year old glass balls which so far we’ve lost two of this year. The latter come in red, green, blue, and yellow – and don’t ever debate my daughter on whether or not blue and yellow are Christmas colors.
- Small wooden pieces that bring to mind the six weeks I spent in the hospital three years ago awaiting the twins’ arrival…some dear friends brought a little decorated tree to my room. Bittersweet.
- This year we’ve added advent calendar paper chains to mark off the days until Christmas.
Taken all together somehow our little tree, much like the Charlie Brown twig, turns into a beautiful in its own way decoration…and more.
- the full picture
It is a metaphor for my life as a mom of a child with special needs. Some parts have come unhinged and are strapped back together with sheer inventiveness. Some unnecessary and unwanted things have been shed. There are some areas of scarcity. There are a few fragile things that have been shattered, but there is much that is resilient, strong, and shining bright for the world to see. There are memories to cherish, and there is bright hope for the future. Taken all together there is beauty in the details and in the full picture.