If This Christmas Tree Could Talk

For years people have been gathering around this tree. Means a lot to me that it calls our house home now.

This is a tree my grandma made years ago with old costume jewelry, which I hear was a very popular thing to do back in the day. I used to love looking at this thing. We were with her quite a bit as kids and I loved helping her decorate for our big Christmas Eve party every year.

More than thirty of us would fit into my grandparents modest living room along with a table full of food stacked with your usual holiday spread. Tucked under the table would be paper bags that my grandma had hand drawn pictures onto that held our presents from Big Lots and Savers. We never knew if they were gag gifts or not because she would show up on Christmas morning with even more stuff. The Dancing Ostrich traveled around from family member to family member every year. Chris got a plastic head of a female wrestler once.

Their would be laughs and drama. "Linda, why in the hell must you bring your dogs in?" By dogs I mean Siberian HUGE Huskies. Mind you she would be wearing a ridiculously huge fur coat as well, with her long blond hair and an insane amount of jewelry. It was classic. Then somewhere along the line my grandma's teeth would fall out. Oh, and I can't forget Chris's first time with my family on Christmas Eve. I think we were seventeen and someone spilled in his lap. Within two seconds my grandma was wiping his crotch incessantly until it was clean. "Welcome to the family! What? You mean I won't get accosted by your grandparents at your family parties?" Grandma must have done something right, he has stuck around for eleven more years.

So there are some stories this old tree could tell. Good stories about family and arguments and laughing and eye rolls and most importantly love. Every family has its own set of issues, as will probably mine someday. And now they will be stories that have my home as a backdrop. Now, where is my nanny cam?