So many trees of Christmas past. So many losses over the years too. Loss of a husband through divorce. Loss of my dear brother, Lyle, through cancer. And the loss of my dear daughter, Stefani, through ovarian cancer.
Before moving from Santa Barbara to Madison, WI I bought a lovely 'realistic fake' Christmas tree at Cost Plus.
Now I'm building new memories with my family here - precious daughter and grandsons!
Diana, if you’d never written anything after this (thank you for sharing it again), it would have been enough (although Grateful and Freeing Jesus are certainly welcome icing on the cake of your writing!). This is wonderful and spot on! We love the light and Presence our trees are throughout the seasons of Advent and Christmas. Advent Peace and Christmas Joy be yours!🎁
We have not had a tree for a long while as our home is very small, but we hang some ornaments on our other holiday displays, saying the name of the giver as they go up.
Not a tree of life, but still a remembrance of our loved ones.
Fruit of memory is a beautiful reflection, thank you.
I have so enjoyed these reflections during Advent. Thank you. I have passed on ornaments to my children for their memory trees. It is fun to share stories of their origin with my grandson.
My first "Tree of Memories" was destroyed in a fire! It represented 20 year. Those wonderful ones made by your children, but now 60 year's later my tree is filled with new ones! Ones made by grandchildren! thank you for sharing the concept!
We also have a "tree of memories." Each year on our family vacation, we buy a Christmas ornament representative of our vacation, so our tree has ornaments reminding us of times spent together. Our anniversary is in December, so for several years, we got an ornament for our tree as an anniversary gift as well. And some of our most treasured ornaments are the ones with photos or symbols of our pets who are no longer with us. The memories are a huge part of the holidays, and reminders of the blessings we have, and have enjoyed through the years.
Our tree has 47 years of memories, too. Covid boredom afforded me the opportunity to list all of the ornaments and the occasions for acquiring them. That list is a hedge against memory loss but for now the act of decorating is a ritual of gratitude for the blessings of the families, friends and travels that we have been afforded over the decades.
Back in the 50’s and 60’s our tree came from my grandfathers farm. It was a white pine that bore little resemblance to the slim artificial one that sits in my living room. The back of the tree was usually sparse and there was room for a child to nestle in. I remember pretending the nativity story in those branches. It was a sacred and mysterious story then as now.
So many trees of Christmas past. So many losses over the years too. Loss of a husband through divorce. Loss of my dear brother, Lyle, through cancer. And the loss of my dear daughter, Stefani, through ovarian cancer.
Before moving from Santa Barbara to Madison, WI I bought a lovely 'realistic fake' Christmas tree at Cost Plus.
Now I'm building new memories with my family here - precious daughter and grandsons!
Life is full of Joy!
Diana, if you’d never written anything after this (thank you for sharing it again), it would have been enough (although Grateful and Freeing Jesus are certainly welcome icing on the cake of your writing!). This is wonderful and spot on! We love the light and Presence our trees are throughout the seasons of Advent and Christmas. Advent Peace and Christmas Joy be yours!🎁
We have not had a tree for a long while as our home is very small, but we hang some ornaments on our other holiday displays, saying the name of the giver as they go up.
Not a tree of life, but still a remembrance of our loved ones.
Fruit of memory is a beautiful reflection, thank you.
I have so enjoyed these reflections during Advent. Thank you. I have passed on ornaments to my children for their memory trees. It is fun to share stories of their origin with my grandson.
My first "Tree of Memories" was destroyed in a fire! It represented 20 year. Those wonderful ones made by your children, but now 60 year's later my tree is filled with new ones! Ones made by grandchildren! thank you for sharing the concept!
t
We also have a "tree of memories." Each year on our family vacation, we buy a Christmas ornament representative of our vacation, so our tree has ornaments reminding us of times spent together. Our anniversary is in December, so for several years, we got an ornament for our tree as an anniversary gift as well. And some of our most treasured ornaments are the ones with photos or symbols of our pets who are no longer with us. The memories are a huge part of the holidays, and reminders of the blessings we have, and have enjoyed through the years.
Thank you for sharing this, Diana. Pure gift!
Our tree has 47 years of memories, too. Covid boredom afforded me the opportunity to list all of the ornaments and the occasions for acquiring them. That list is a hedge against memory loss but for now the act of decorating is a ritual of gratitude for the blessings of the families, friends and travels that we have been afforded over the decades.
Back in the 50’s and 60’s our tree came from my grandfathers farm. It was a white pine that bore little resemblance to the slim artificial one that sits in my living room. The back of the tree was usually sparse and there was room for a child to nestle in. I remember pretending the nativity story in those branches. It was a sacred and mysterious story then as now.