Tessa Today: A tree 32 years in the making

It all started here, or to the left, I should say. A real, pine smelling tree with all new, all gold ornaments. The picture is lousy, the photographer was worse and you would think I would have picked up and re-organized the ornaments off the floor. But it was 1978 and there were other things going on at the time.
This was my apartment or a small corner of it. Well, most of it was a small corner since it wasn't very large but well, I guess it was large enough. I swear that isn't a velvet painting on the wall. It can't be. I wouldn't have gone for that. I know I didn't like those things no matter how popular they were at the time. But then, it was 1978 and there were other things going on at the time.
It was the first Christmas I spent with Jay and this was the tree we had and how we decided to decorate it back then. (Maybe it was Jay's velvet painting. It does look like a velvet painting. I really don't remember. I'll have to ask him). But it was the first tree and the first Christmas and it was 1978. And I went out that year and bought a Hallmark ornament. It was dated. It had the year on it. I kept it in the box (since our tree was all gold) and displayed it.
The following year I went out and bought another Hallmark ornament that was dated. I kept it in the box and displayed it with the previous years ornament. Side by side, two years in a row, each with the year on them.
Somehow, I managed to buy an ornament each year. Each year I would line them up and display them side by side in their respective boxes with each bearing their respective year.
It became a tradition that I would go out and buy a dated ornament each year and keep it in the box and display them all together in a line. Life went on, years past, two boys were born and there was a new ornament added each year. The boys grew and became older as did Jay and I. Many years later when the boys were much taller they marveled at the growing number of ornaments that had accumulated over the years. They would point to the first year or the year they were each born. "That's mine," they would say then turn and ask me. "What are you going to do with all these ornaments, mom?"
I was never without some kind of answer for them so I simply told them very matter-of-factly, "When you both grow up and move out, I am going to use only those dated ornaments to decorate my tree."
They snickered and grinned and figured that was a long way off and the ornaments were packed away for another year until the holiday rolled around again and I bought another and another and displayed them all each year. I displayed them even when we decided not to put up a tree last year.

Maybe this is small (you could go to this post to see it better... http://tessatoday.blogspot.com/2009/12/no-tree.html
But all those things you see lined up on the top two and then last shelf are all the dated ornaments I had accumulated over the years.

So today I decided to put up our tree. Last week Jay asked if we needed to put it up this year and I must have stuttered or stumbled my answer because he asked me again, "Just tell me if we are putting up the tree, yes or no." I said, "Yes."
"Oh, he said, not too happily. We'll do it next week."
So I decided to do it today. I went up into the attic since that is where the artificial tree that Jay decided we should buy after the boys moved out is located. They couldn't protest the lack of a real tree any longer since they didn't live here and I decided not to fight Jay on that battle. I wonder if I decided not to fight the velvet painting battle either? It looks like one, right? Gads. I have to ask him about that.

So into the attic I went and dragged down the tree, took it out of the box and put it together.

Then I got the ornaments and spread them out to see if maybe...
I was thinking about what I had told the boys so long ago. I was thinking as I spread the ornaments out on the table. I was thinking as I pulled out not only the ornament for each year but then the few extra ornaments I had bought a few years because I especially liked it or ones I got as a promotional item. They were all there and I was thinking.

Were there enough??? Could I decorate the tree using only the dated ornaments? I had asked about doing that a few years past and the family consensus was, "Oh, No...you shouldn't. You can't take them out of the boxes."
But I always said I would...when they grew up and moved out. And they have. So it's time. So I was thinking it was time. And they are ornaments and have earned a place to hang on a tree.
So I took each piece out of their original box and I got to hold each one, each year, and think about when I bought this one and that one. And I decorated the tree by taking one out of the box and putting it on the tree, then going to the next and the next. And it looks like this...