SIMPLE N SIMPLE: Christmas Was Grand

Our Christmas tree is 13 years old.

I bought this tree on Christmas Eve from PX in Germany, the only one left in the store at the time.

My sole purpose of getting a Christmas tree that late so close to Christmas was to distract then our 10 year old son whose dad had just left to go to Kosovo for 6 month deployment.

It was on the spur of the moment idea and activity I came up with.

No, I wasn't going to put up a tree at first.

Back then we had a handful of ornaments.

So we took out our old Christmas cards and cut them out and made them into ornaments.

I kept him busy and I was able to distract the boy for a while.

I thought he was going to be fine. But as soon as we were done with adorning the tree, he blurted out "I miss daddy." My plan was not that suceessful, but the tree stayed with us reminding me the day.

Unlike 13 years ago, every time My husband is gone, we don't put up a tree at all.

It has become a too much hassle to bring out all the Christmas related boxes from the storage and from the attic.

But when he is around, and when we are able to spend this joyous season together, we feel so blessed to be together as a family. And this year we did put our Christmas tree up in our new house here in California.

Since I love the colors, my ornaments are colorful glass blown ornaments collected over the period of ten years. Some are from Germany and Poland. Many are bought from TJ Max and some vintage ones from the antique stores.

Wow! Look at all these homemade goodies we have received from the people at the chapel.

There was an out-of-the-world fruit cake and delicious pumpkin cake that were eaten

before I could take pictures.

My good friends are all elderly people in their 80's. They have been making these for many many years. The toffee that Ms Flo made melts in your mouth. She promised me that she will show me how to make it one these days. The Christmas cookies Ms. Marion made for us were all gone in 2 days. They were all so delicious and were such precious gifts from the heart.

I will cherish this memory for a long time.