Funny how when you’re seven years old you don’t realize the fun you’re having or the memories that you’re creating. The first year my childhood family moved into our first home in Vancouver, mom bought a christmas tree and decided that for the first time, she won’t decorate it at all and that the Children will do it!
We dug into the box of old christmas ornaments, cracked glass balls, old school-made hanging thingies, five year old candy canes, and christmas lights where every 3rd or 4th light wouldn’t work or would be chipped and have bits of plastic “tree” melted on it. It was a beautiful tree and I won’t forget it… especially the popcorn strings we put on it that year.
Twenty years later, I have a family of my own, and we’re about to have our first Christmas in our own home. I haven’t thought about the time when I was seven until now. Evelyn will make stockings from walmart Fabric, I’ll have itunes streaming Christmas music throughout the house. We don’t have much money, but we’ll be together and enjoy the many days off that I haven’t had in so long.
Beside me, my seven year old son is watching TV, oblivious to the memories that he’s building right now.
I hope that this Christmas will be a positively memorable one for him, one that he will hold in his heart forever, and when he has a family of his own.
I’m sure that if I looked hard enough I could find one of those old candy canes. They practically last forever!