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Our Christmas Tree
In the Kozicky household, every year we decorated our Christmas tree haphazardly. No one cared that the lights were randomly strung on, the ornaments were quickly hooked on, or that the tinsel was purposely tossed on, in clumps. As a little girl, I loved to watch the tinsel globs trickle down through the branches and then land on the floor at my feet. I thought it looked like real snow falling off the tree.
Then I married Doug. I learned that every year his family decorated their Christmas tree with special care. The Fisks always spaced their Christmas lights evenly, adjusted the ornaments on the blue spruce (and only a blue spruce) carefully, placed their special angel securely on the top of the tree (Mom, did we even have an angel?), and they never threw tinsel…never ever.
When Doug and I began to decorate our first Christmas tree, he studied where to place the lights, the ornaments, and even the angel. I stood and watched, amazed at his serious attention to detail. When it was time for the tinsel, I eagerly grabbed the box of silver strands and began to throw. With horror in his eyes, he stopped me and demonstrated how to place the tinsel, “correctly”. He insisted that we hook the tinsel carefully over the branches, ONE AT A TIME…1000 strands, 3 seconds each strand, you do the math!
Thirty years later I still pretend to agree with Doug’s tree-decorating regimen, but every year, if you look closely at our Christmas tree, there are always some clumps of tinsel hanging off the branches…just for old times sake.
Merry Christmas y’all