Kismet: Trimming the tree

It took us nearly a week after going out to cut down our tree for us to get it into the house and then a few more days of working on it to get it decorated. But it looks great. Today while I was putting on the finishing touches (putting on the 'rain') Mason was examining some ornaments that he didn't see when we decorated. He clapped his hands and said,

"Wow, we're rich!"

"We are? How so?"

"These ornaments!"

I looked down to see him on his knees biting a silver little ornament.

"Mase, what are you doing?"

"I'm checking to see if these are January."

"January?"

"Yes, if they are January gold."

"Oh! I think the word you want is genuine."

He watched me putting some special glass ornaments near the top of the tree and asked me about them.

When my sister married her husband, Mark in 1990 he began to include us in a tradition he had with his own family. Every year he would purchase exquisite square glass ornaments that were etched with a Christmas theme and the year it was made. It was a gift of love as he has 6 brothers and sisters and had just inherited 2 more sisters.

This is my first one from 1990, though it is hard to see and this picture doesn't do it justice.

Mark continued to present us with these ornaments and even included my girls when they each married. So now they each have ones starting the year they were married.

Eventually though the artist had to raise his prices and it just became too much and Mark had to give up buying for so many family members. It was a generous thing to have gone on as long as it did. But I was sad about it. My daughter Julie knew how much I loved them and the following Christmas Eve much to my delight I found a small package with my name on it and inside that year's glass ornament. Julie decided to carry on the tradition for her family and her mother.

As I hung them on the tree today I explained the significance of each year to Mason. He of course was most interested in the 2000 one as that is the year he was born. We talked about how pretty they are and how the lights on the trees sparkle and dance off the glass. I tried to capture that here.

They really do sparkle and shine and reflect the lights. I have 17 of them and cherish each and every one. I always try to group them on the tree. One year I had a separate little tree with only the glass ornaments on it. Lovely.

Remember when I told you I am not crafty? It isn't as if I haven't tried, honestly. Years and years ago I saw a Christmas craft in a magazine that I felt confident I could copy. I went to the craft store and bought supplies, dug out a rarely used sewing machine and started cutting. I made a few mistakes along the way but was rather surprised when they actually turned out close to what I was attempting. When David dug out all the Christmas boxes this week he made sure to get every last one cause he wants to consolidate and organize. I dug to the bottom of one and found a pile of that long ago craft project. You can tell that I got better as I went along. There are some funky colors, some weird stitching and the hanger loops are varying sizes. Some have lost their glued on googly eyes. But I was able to hang a half dozen or so on the tree....for prosperity's sake.

This is one of the very first ones I think