Aging Capriciously

Every year since Karen and I were married we have put up a Christmas Tree.  Putting up a tree was once something I hated almost as much as I hated the entire Christmas event.  I would be more than happy to forget that Christmas ever existed.  I made my first wife miserable with my incessant complaints about Christmas and made a promise to myself not to let my hatred of Christmas get in the way of Karen’s love for the holiday.  So very dutifully I unload the tree and boxes of ornaments, put on some Christmas songs, and help Karen decorate our tree. 

Yesterday, we went to a friends open house to view her decorations.  She has absolutely the most gorgeous holiday decorations I have ever seen.  It takes her months to decorate most of the rooms in her home and I truly marvel at her energy and the organizational skills it would take to put all her decorations up, take them down, store them and then find them again the following year.  In one room, she had a very large beautifully decorated Christmas tree.  You would not find a lovelier tree in either Macy’s or Gimbels 😊.

After returning home, I sat down in our living room a few feet from our own tree.  I asked Karen what she thought of our friends tree, and she remarked how gorgeous it was.  In comparison, I thought our tree looked a little more puny and nowhere near as stylish.  I replied to Karen, “Yes, her tree was prettier than ours, but I like ours better.”  Karen agreed.  I then thought, if her tree was more beautiful, then why would I prefer ours?  I wondered if I was just being defensive.  I asked myself this question and I realized it was not defensiveness.  Our tree would not turn any designers heads but for me the beauty was in all the memories that were on our tree.  Almost every ornament has some memory attached.  I told Karen, “Think of all the memories we have on our tree.  I am going to write a blog about it.”

My blog strategy was to pick out several ornaments from among the hundreds on our tree and to share with you some of our memories in terms of what they mean to us.  Since the memories are both Karen’s and mine, I asked Karen to help pick some decorations that were special to her and to share her memories of them.  Karen inherited a few of the decorations from her parents and some she acquired before we were married.  Several of the decorations actually go back to before either Karen or I were born.  I will include pictures of our tree and each ornament as we both take turns describing our memories.  The ornaments selected are simply in random order.  

I bought this ornament after my first wife and I were divorced.  It is the first ornament I ever remember buying.  Not sure what drew me to it, but I really loved it.  Maybe it was the woman that I wanted to marry.  After Karen and I were married, we hung it on the tree that we put up on our first Christmas living together. 

I have an adopted Korean daughter, Susan.  I bought this at a summer Korean camp.  Susan went to Korean day camp as a child, but later began teaching at Korean day camp while her sons attended camp. The little bear is wearing the traditional Korean female dress called called the Hanbok.  It is a distinctive clothing item that is unique to Korea.  I wanted Susan to have knowledge of her birth country, and eventually she found her birth mom, visits Korea and keeps in regular contact with her.  

I spent my high school years in Johnston, RI.  If you have ever been to Rhode Island, you will know the significance of this cup.  Dunkin Donuts permitted generations of young Italians like me to start “dunkin” their donuts.  My sister lives in Rhode Island and a highlight of our visits there used to be a trip to a Dunkin Donuts store.  From a small local chain, they are now a national chain.  I never really thought their coffee was that good.  Karen likes expresso coffee and Dunkin Donuts was not known for their expresso.  

 

My daughter Megan loved the nutcracker ballet.  John and I started taking her to the performances as a Christmas outing event whenever we could.  Seeing this little girl from the Nutcracker always reminds me of Megan.  She has since left Arizona to return to her roots in Minnesota.  We will all get to another Nutcracker Ballet again some day.  

 

 

John and I seem to have an affinity for all things Asian.  We have been to China, Taiwan, Japan and Korea together.  We particularly love Asian food.  Minnesota opened its heart and doors to many Vietnamese and Hmong refugees after the Vietnam war was over.  They have become a part of the Minnesota culture and contribute to it in many ways.  This decoration was purchased at a Hmong craft festival in St. Paul and was hand made and sewn by a Hmong woman. 

 

 

This little ornament was purchased when we bought our 26 foot Aspen Trail about five years ago.  For many years Karen had wanted to start doing our snow birding in an RV rather than by car.  I finally gave in and we purchased a 2018 Aspen Trail pull-behind trailer.  Karen spent months redecorating the interior and making it into a real home.  It was a labor of love for her.  For five years she enjoyed the trailer and its many conveniences.  This all came to an almost screeching halt a few months ago when we were returning from Wisconsin to Arizona.  We had a freak accident that ended up in our RV being declared a total loss by our insurance company.  We were glad to walk away with our lives.  We were both sad over the loss, especially Karen.  Nevertheless, we decided to put our RV days behind us just as we once did with our motorcycle days.