My mother is the Queen of Christmas Tree Decorations. Seriously,
her tree strikes people dumb. When guests see it for the first time, I can
count on approximately ten minutes of awe and examination before any other
conversation continues. The seven foot, artificial tree itself is no big
deal—what's extraordinary is the 1,063 ornaments adorning it.
It gave me great
pleasure to incorporate this tradition into my novel The Blessings of the Animals. I
gave my main character a mother very different from my own, but they shared this
ornament ritual. My own mother said it was like receiving a gift to read about
the three generations of women continuing the tradition, even if in a fictional
world.
And,
yes, that's an exact figure, not an estimate. That number was accurate when the
ornaments were boxed up and stuck back in the closet on January 6th, 2011.
The quantity alone is enough to
make your eyes widen—the ornaments literally cover every available inch of the
tree, going four and five deep all the way to the trunk. Getting all 1,063 of
those ornaments on the tree is a three day process that leaves my parents'
living room looking like a cardboard box and tissue-paper bomb exploded (and which
my dad, a bit of a Scrooge, endures with much grumbling). But it's the quality
that really grabs you. There are no generic round bulbs here, no color scheme,
no trendy theme. No, every ornament is individual, some unusual (how many
people have spiders and garlic cloves hanging on their trees?)—many of them
handmade—and all tell a story. Her tree is a veritable scrapbook of memories.
See, my mom started a great
tradition when my sister and I were babies. Every Christmas, she bought us a
new tree ornament. She always tried for the ornament to commemorate something
important or memorable from that year in our life. From as early as I can
remember, she told us that when we moved away and had our own homes, we could
take our ornaments with us, so our Christmas trees would be personal and
meaningful. When Monica and I were old enough to have a clue, we started buying
our mother an ornament each year as well so that we wouldn't wipe out her tree
when we moved away.
The
memory is far more important that the appearance when selecting an ornament. It
matters not one iota to my mother if the ornament doesn't look “traditionally”
Christmas-y, as long as there is a good story. Among the decorations on her
tree are a blue hot-air balloon (commemorating the year we sent her up in one
for her 50th birthday), a pink elephant (for the year my niece and father
created an elaborate story about Zamboni, an invisible elephant who lived in
our basement), and a gingerbread house (for the year she and I attempted to make
one ourselves...only to have it turn into a gingerbread “ghetto” whose roof
kept collapsing).
My
own tree displays such oddities as a hoof-pick painted red for the year I
bought my first horse, a pair of eyeglasses for the year I had Lasik surgery, a
small set of paddles for the year I almost drowned in a rafting accident on the
Gauley River, and a little log cabin for the year I won a residency at the
Hedgebrook Retreat for Women Writers. There are ornaments to represent every
pet I've ever had, as well as ornaments representing some of the fictional
animal characters in my books. These all hang along with the ugly pink plastic
angel with white Barbie doll hair that I begged her to buy for me when I was
five. My tree contains an Iron Man figure, a suitcase and passport, and an
African grey parrot. Each one has a story.
When
my creative mother can't find the item she's looking for, she'll make it herself—my
favorite being one she gave me the year of my divorce. To commemorate my new
home and its every wall that I painted in bright colors, she crafted a
miniature paint bucket and brush with the label: “New Beginnings Paint.”
A longtime Girl Scout leader
and preschool teacher, my mother has been given hundreds of ornaments from
former students and Scouts. She keeps a notebook in which she draws a small
picture of the ornament and a description of who gave it to her, what year it
was given, and any special significance it has. Her tree is a testament to how
many lives she has touched.
I'm so grateful for the
tradition she's begun. It's funny how the actual gifts will blur together and
be forgotten, but I can always remember the ornament I received the previous
Christmas. I look forward to unpacking my ornaments each year and the memories
that come with them.
From Katrina Kittle, critically acclaimed author of The Kindness of Strangers, comes a wry and moving story of forgiveness, flexibility, happiness, and the art of moving on.
Veterinarian Cami Anderson has hit a rough patch. Stymied by her recent divorce, she wonders if there are secret ingredients to a happy, long-lasting marriage or if the entire institution is outdated and obsolete. Couples all around her are approaching important milestones. Her parents are preparing to celebrate their fiftieth anniversary. Her brother and his partner find their marriage dreams legally blocked. Her former sister-in-law—still her best friend—is newly engaged. The youthfully exuberant romance of her teenage daughter is developing complications. And three separate men—including her ex-husband—are becoming entangled in Cami's messy post-marital love life.
But as she struggles to come to terms with her own doubts amid this chaotic circus of relationships, Cami finds strange comfort in an unexpected confidant: an angry, unpredictable horse in her care. With the help of her equine soul mate, she begins to make sense of marriage's great mysteries—and its disconnects.
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