My Family Tree

As I write these words, I am listening to my favorite childhood Christmas album. (Is it still considered an “album” if it’s actually a playlist on my phone?!?)

The album is the 1968 recording of Living Strings and Living Voices “White Christmas.” Next to Nat King Cole’s “The Christmas Song”, this was by far the most often played music in our house at Christmastime when I was a kid.

And here I am, a few decades later, feeling transported back to childhood as soon as the notes of the first song begin. All the words to every song come flooding back to me, and I intuitively know what song comes next. I am tickled that the same is true of my 18 year old daughter!

The comfort I feel when I listen to this album is tremendous. The 8 year old girl I once was lives on in this 51 year old woman, and while I may be older and wiser, that sense of innocent wonder still burns in the recesses of my heart.

I keep hitting repeat on this playlist because after four days with my parents for Thanksgiving, I want to hold on to that nostalgic notion of childhood Christmases just a little bit longer.

After Christmas cookie baking is done on Friday, we decorate Mom and Dad’s tree on Saturday. This tradition means more to me every year, as it is such a concrete reminder of our family’s history. We have been hanging these ornaments for my entire life.

There is the set of birdhouse ornaments that my parents have had since they were first married. My sister Kim, and I each had to take one when we moved out so that we could continue the tradition on our own trees.

There are the stained glass ornaments Kim and I made by filling each design with sparkly color pellets that we baked till they melted and glowed.

There are the ornaments that Mom and Dad’s grandchildren have made for them over the years, and ones to honor and remember the beloved dogs they have had to put down. We even joked that the dogs had to be dead before they made it on the tree, as Mom and Dad have a golden retriever now who has yet to have her own ornament!

And then there are the ornaments that are perhaps most precious to me…the ones that remind me of the people I love who are now in heaven: the crocheted ornaments that Grandma Gruenloh made for us, a photo ornament of Grandpa Scibetta in his World War II Navy uniform, Grandma Scibetta’s smile enshrined in an ornament with “Forever in our Hearts” emblazoned across it, and the personalized glass ornament to remember my Aunt Marilyn.

This year, we added an ornament to remember my Uncle Roger. He and my Aunt Pat hosted 4th of July parties at their house for over 20 years and always had their entire house decked out in patriotic flair. They had a set of heart shaped ornaments with stars and stripes on it that they hung up every year. I took the whole set home with me, but Mom and Dad kept one for their tree so they will think of Uncle Roger every year when they get it back out.

Tonight, my daughter Angela, and I are putting the ornaments on our tree. Each one has a story behind it, a memory attached, a person remembered. I am so grateful that Angela still loves to hear these stories every year. It reminds me that everyone I’ve loved and lost is still with me.

These precious ornaments decorate what is quite literally, my family tree.