Tree Traditions?

     We don't have a tree decorating tradition. Growing up, our house didn't have one. I would like to have one.
  My best friend did have a tree tradition, at least I'm pretty sure she did, growing up. And oddly enough, I can't recall the details. I remember getting the tree, placing it in front of the French doors, and that evening we decorated it, as a family. We all had ornaments, and being my first year, I had a few of my own as well. I distinctly remember a moose, of all things. It was the first ornament that was ever mine. That was the year I lived with them, my other family. Though, by that time, things had changed between us already, and there was a growing distance and conflict. Looking back, I feel like it was that line, of being young and stupid. I'm not positive how much of that was reality, but I do know I pushed them away, which was stupid. That her and I let people and things come between us. Now, over a decade later, we are acquaintances at best. We have miles between us, and not just mountains and streams. At Christmas, I sometimes wonder if they decorate the tree with that moose, or do they keep it packed away, and the memories with it.



   A few years after that, I met my future husband. He didn't have a tree decorating tradition either. He had a Christmas Eve gift thing. Which, thinking back, I think my best friend did as well. But gifts are another thought. We got a big tree and decorated it with ornaments he had collected over the years, as well as a bunch from his childhood. I had no ornaments by then. I had no special ones from childhood, not even a first Christmas ornament. I had nothing to contribute to our first tree. For Christmas that year, I did get an ornament to add to the tree, which led to buying an ornament for each year after. I suppose that's our tree tradition. Every year since we've purchased or given ornaments to each other, and to the boys.
   We have their first Christmas ornaments ( more than one). I even have an expecting ornament, for the year I was pregnant with our first son. They have ornaments they really like. We have quite a few home made ornaments now. A friend of mine has a tree of all home made ornaments. They make them yearly and just add on. I think that's pretty neat.
  But as far as decorating goes, it's usually myself and the boys who trim the tree. Mostly them, except for the very breakable ones that go on the top.  I would like, as they get older, for us to do this as a family.  Have some type of tree decorating tradition that we all look forward to. Enjoy the time together and remember the years as we unwrap each ornament. Create new memories.
 Eh, perhaps I'm just feeling a bit melancholy today.