Making Memories.

There are moments as a mom that you wish you could bottle up and pour out later. Tonight was one of those times. We were doing our best to make our house look like the Griswald's (you only understand this if you have watched Christmas Vacation), and we were on a roll. We put the kids to bed and decided to tackle putting up the tree. To our pleasant surprise, all the lights worked. We broke down and bought a pre-lit tree last year and thankfully it took about 5 minutes to put up and plug in.

Jeffrey is so excited about Christmas he can hardly stand himself. He declared that he wanted to help decorate the tree. I've decorated trees with him before and it has never been much fun, or all the ornaments are crammed together at his eye level which is very cute, but a pain to re-do. (I know I should leave them, but that is the subject for another day!) Traditionally he would last about 3 minutes, lose interest and wander off - which is fine since he was young. This year, at age 6 1/2, he got it. He wanted to hear stories about each ornament, and he delighted in unwrapping each one. He giggled over "Our First Christmas" ornament and daddy and I kissing. He was fascinated by how I had glued ribbons on clear balls when Jeff and I were first married and didn't have many ornaments for our tree so I made a bunch.

I told him the story of me asking Jeff for a "baby's first Christmas" ornament the year he was born. Jeff waited till the last minute, and instead of some beautiful glass Radko like I wanted, he ran up and got the cheapy $5 Hallmark ornament for that year. I opened it on Christmas morning, and the baby was BLACK! We literally laughed until we cried and we laugh every year. It was fun to see Santa and talk about ornaments we had bought on vacation. He thought it was cool to see the Alaska ornament since he was in my tummy when we got that one.

I did not share with him why I got all teary over one ornament. Two years after he was born, I had a miscarriage the day after Thanksgiving. A dear friend bought me a beautiful antique angel sitting on a cloud in memory of what could have been. It is a touching tribute and reminder to me of the long road we travelled to have our children. One day he'll hear that story, but not tonight.

The same friend gave me a gorgeous Radko ornament last year when Andrew was born. It is one of a little boy hold a huge stack of presents. The card stays with the ornament, and it reads, "celebrating the gift of Andrew..." How fitting.

We talked about the tragedy of 9/11 as we put a beautful heart with the American flag on it. He delighted in an ornament that another friend had made with all the kids name on it. He loved ones that had his name on it, and his eyes lit up when he recognized ones he had made. We put Hulk and Spiderman down low so he could see them, and we took turns on the ladder.

Half way through, he looked at me and said, "there's lots of memories on this tree, mom, and that is pretty special."

You are special too, Jeffrey, you are special too.