Christmas tree ornaments

Since I haven't posted in a while, I thought I'd tell the story of these wonderful Christmas ornaments.  They were handmade by my mom several years ago.  Every year, when I pull them out of the box, I remember when she was frantically beading ornaments and coming up with new patterns.  In one of my storage boxes is an entire placemat setting for 8 in red and white beads.  

Anyway, we used to take the kids out every year to hunt down the perfect Christmas tree.  We'd manage to get it home and set it up and decorate it.  Each child had to put on specific ornaments and "Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree" was a song heard over and over as we decorated the tree.  As the kids got older, coordinating a time to go and get a tree that accommodated busy schedules got more complicated. I got frustrated and went out and bought an artificial tree.  There were grumbles and complaints, but we had a tree up.

In the meantime, my mom was giving away all the old family ornaments that we used to make and put on her tree.  The ones made at school and scouts, the ones we made at home, those purchased at K-Mart, all made it to other homes (mostly my oldest sister's).  Mom had decided that she wanted her tree decorated with crystal and silver.  She was traveling all over the state of Michigan buying these beautiful ornaments and I chastised her for being so extravagant.  Well, the first time I saw her tree, I fell in love with it.  It was BEAUTIFUL!  In the next few years, she started making these beaded ornaments, as shown in the picture, to save money because every year, a few of the glass or crystal ones broke.

But my kids liked our traditions and the variety of ornaments and memories from years past.  So, as time passed and the kids got older, it fell to me to put up the Christmas tree and one Christmas, I found myself decorating the tree just a few days before Christmas, by myself as nobody had time to help.  It just wasn't the same fun and I became sullen and angry.  Who decided that every sport should hold conference meets and holiday meets during the weeks before Christmas?  Why are term papers and final exams given then?  I can remember sitting on bleachers addressing holiday cards.  Uggh!  

The next couple of years found the same circumstances and I threatened the kids with getting a "designer" tree.  After dad died, mom found that she no longer wanted to put up the tree and I pounced on the opportunity to get my designer tree.  Mom gave me all of her precious glass and crystal ornaments.  I stored the container in the garage, and one Christmas, put the tree with the old ornaments in the basement and put my new decorations on the main tree in the living room.  The kids hated it and I felt guilty, but loved how it looked.

Now, I pride myself on being clever.  My kids even call me "brilliant" (OK, I trained them to call me that).  My mom had wrapped her ornaments in facial tissue and tissue paper and dishtowels.  I thought that was terribly tacky, so I got some designer boxes and specialty towels and wrapped them and put them back in the garage.  The next year when I opened the box, most of the ornaments were broken.  Minnesota is not the place where you want to leave your glass in the winter.  I was so heartbroken!  Mom's beaded ornaments survived, and a couple of the others, but most were gone.  Those precious ornaments had survived Minnesota winters in all of mom's tissues, but lost the battle in their new STOOPID designer boxes.  I am getting upset again as I write this.  Sigh.

I went searching for glass and crystal ornaments and couldn't find any.  In desperation, I picked up some acrylic ornaments.  They just don't have the same shine and sparkle as the glass or crystal ornaments.  The kids talked about my ugly tree that year, but I have since found many glass or crystal ornaments and they mix nicely with the others.  I changed my accent color to gold and a lot of the new glass ornaments have some gold accents, but my most precious ornaments are the few that survived that MN winter and these beaded ones from mom.