First Third Bare

Dear Henry, 
We scouted out your first Christmas Tree....at Lowes.  

Yeah, I know, Mommy and Daddy should buy local.  We tried to...but the tree farmer we went to last year wasn't at the location it has been for the last 5 years.  It was pretty cold out, we figured we should get it done quickly and Lowes shoves it through a little circular gadget that nets the tree up so it is easy to carry into the house.  

 

We ended up with a very fresh tree.  Three weeks in and the needles are still soft, which emboldens you to attack the tree from time to time.  With our tree track record I figured we would have a porcupine to detour your ornament stealing exploits by now.   An interesting fact: every year we declare we will get an even taller tree than the last!   We look, we prop up, we analyze about the shape, needle color, and how straight the trunk is, and comment on how it will gain some inches once balanced in the tree stand.   Bah!  No such thing!  We pick it out, get them home and they just get shorter and shorter.  If I were to put on my mathlete hat and work some calculations, by the time you are able to read this our tree will be about a foot tall.  It was quick to decorate.  You stood closely next to Papa and wanted to see what was going on, trying to "reposition" from time to time.  

Ho hum, it still looks beautiful, with one glitch; the ornaments have crept their way toward the top of the tree.  The first third of the tree is bare for the most part due to your grabby hands and chewing mouth.  Sometimes you just look but often you pull off a star or chew on a snowflake.  To keep this Christmas safe all of the inexpensive, shatter proof doo-dads hang toward the bottom leaving a shiny crowd milling about the top.  Some mornings when we first start our play day you crawl to the tree reaching out to vigorously shake hands with Mr. Christmas Tree, spreading dry needles I was too lazy to blow out of the tree before putting it up all over the floor.  It is all worth it though.  It makes our house smell good and our living room extra cozy.


There are a couple of special ornaments on our tree this year Mommy must tell you about.  A couple of Christmas' ago Daddy and I were opening up presents to discover that we had both bought the same ornaments for each other.  They were a robot couple.  A boy robot and a girl robot.  This is during the time that it was just Mommy and Daddy.  So this year Mommy had to buy a baby robot to make a trio of robots.  Our little robot family sits on the fireplace overlooking our living room and will every year for the next million Christmas'.  Who knows, perhaps in a few more Christmas' we may need to add a robot to the family.

About five years ago a couple of weeks after Christmas Mommy and Daddy were feeling pretty low.  We had just finished another cycle trying to get you and it didn't work.  Mommy saw these shiny star ornaments with different words stamped into them; faith, hope, peace, noel, and love.  Mommy bought the "hope" one thinking that she would bring it home and put it somewhere that she could look at it everyday to remember that there are lots of different ways to find you and no matter what eventually we would.  So, I put it on the window handle in the kitchen.  Kids always loved playing with this so there it hung for about 5 years.  Honestly, I had forgotten about it until the other day I saw you playing with it for the first time.  Mommy had been thinking about and looking for the perfect ornament to put on our tree to honor J each Christmas. When I saw you playing with "hope" I knew exactly what the ornament would be.  I went to the same store and bought the "peace" ornament, only now they are heart shaped.  I decided on peace because you have brought such peace to our lives and we hope that J is feeling peace in her life too.  I loved that it was a heart because J is now a permanent part of our hearts and for you I hope this has some meaning come future Christmas'.  We put both of these front and center on our tree this year to remind us of all of our newest blessings.  

On a recent visit to J's I told her about it.  She seemed please to know she always has a special place in our lives. She said that she does feel peace and she really likes the idea of being a part of our tree.  

Peace for you always little man, 
Love, Mommy