Decorating the tree

Be forewarned, this is another Kathleen post.

Our tree went up last week - one of those fake jobs that shed nearly as many needles all over the carpet as the real thing but don't smell half as nice. The tree went up last week, but the lights and ornaments did not. That was yesterday's job.

Job. I've always enjoyed decorating for the holidays, but over the years, it slowly grew to be a chore. It wasn't a terrible chore, but I didn't look forward to lugging out the fake tree and fighting with the twinkle lights which magically tangle the moment you store them away for the season. I love the end result, but getting there . . .

This year was different. We lugged out the tree as usual. I unfurled all the "branches"; DH installed them. The lights sat on the chair for a week as we put them off every evening after Kathleen went to bed. We finally put them up yesterday during Kathleen's nap. The fun started when I started on the ornaments and Kathleen woke up.

It. Was. Awesome. I brought Kathleen out to a lighted but otherwise undecorated tree. As always happens after a nap, she likes to be held, so hold her I did as I continued decorating the tree. She watched as DH handed me the ornaments and I placed them on the boughs. I gave her an ornament to hold - a sturdy one with no hooks. She tried to place it on the tree. She did the same thing with another. Then another. Then another. Christmas suddenly regained its magic.

I didn't think Kathleen would be old enough to help with Christmas this year. I was wrong. It was everything I had imagined. I explained to her the origin of every ornament - this one came from our Disney vacation. This one, from Niagara Falls. This one came from Newport. This is the one we bought for your first Christmas - I lived everything I've been dreaming about for years. This is what I've wanted - a little one to share our memories and traditions, someone to help with Christmas cookies the way my brother and I used to help our grandmother, someone to jump up and down with anticipation as we bring up the boxes with the tree, the decorations, and the nativity, a pair of innocent eyes to go outside on Christmas Eve to look for the Christmas star and to scan the skies for Rudolph when she's supposed to be sleeping in bed . . .

There's more, of course, from Mass on Christmas Eve to ham and cookies at my uncle's to the family get-together at my aunt's on Christmas Day. We have so much to share. It excites me no end that we finally have someone to share it with.

I apologize for the sentimentality. I can't help myself today.