Traditions! Where do they come from and where do they go? Sometimes it takes work to hang on to traditions; some just happen upon us, stay for a time and depart. At our house there are a few old traditions that are dear to our hearts....like writing cards and hunting for the "perfect" live Christmas tree.
These were traditions in our family for years. Then life got busy with other things and not so many cards were written. It was much simpler and easier to just e-mail and send off a few photos. Same with the tree tradition. For a few years now we've passed up on having a live tree since friends passed along their artificial tree to us. Here in our modular home where space in the living room is somewhat limited we decided it wasn't practical to try to have an inside tree. It would take up too much living space! But we did enjoy having our artificial fir out on the deck lit up with lights and visited by our feathered friends.
However, this year we have returned to some of those old traditions. I began sending out our first cards from Hungary and now have followed up with more from Canada. And our tree this year? It's a Fraser Fir carefully chosen from our own farm here! Last Saturday we went searching and in the far, back corner of our acreage found a pretty little tree that hadn't been pruned too much. O.J. proceeded to dig it out and it now sits in a large pot in a corner by our front door. We won't be using that entrance this Christmas but we will enjoy having a real live Christmas tree once again!
So, come visit our house as Christmas approaches. You'll find touches of the past and some new decoations that reflect our recent days in Hungary too. You'll see the Thomas Kinkade puzzle which we assembled years ago, the Christmas before O.J. left us for Myanmar. Now it is hung each Christmas as a fond memory of the hours of labour that went into that puzzle some time ago. You'll maybe notice the hand-painted sign sitting atop the tiny table covered by a carefully embroidered cloth...memories of our recent days in Hungary and our new friends there. On the walls see more mottos from days present and past. And of course there is the Fraser Fir tree brightening the corner by the front entrance. Yes, Christmas is coming and Ron has started making his caramels. He also built me a tiny bird feeder this past week and has been doing some TOC (teacher on call) work too.
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