Today Offspring #2 and I went to Frattalone's Hardware store to buy a Christmas tree. The weather was warm and pleasant. Another tree shopping couple were eating ice cream cones while selecting their tree. Our tree is up and looks awesomely handsome against the red walls. We listened to Anoka High School Christmas music while we adorned the tree with lights and ornaments. We do not have a fashionable tree with matching ornaments. Our ornaments were given as gifts, home made, or purchased while on vacation. Each souvenir ornaments takes me back on the trip. I have a goldfish from Hawaii, a Queen's guard with bearskin hat from London, a St. Charles Streetcar from New Orleans, a little copper man from Arizona, a wooden gavel from the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., a sailboat from Virginia, a moose on a wooden plaque from Glacier National Park, and this year I added a little Pilgrim Monument from Cape Cod. (I forgot to get an ornament from Africa? I'll have to make one because that trip needs to be commemorated). Offspring #1 has many ornaments on the tree that he made in Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts. He received some from teachers as well. We have a good number of Girl Scout ornaments too - stick pins and sequins stuck into a foam ball, leather shapes with fabric paint decorations, jigsaw puzzle pieces glued onto a tree shape and spray painted in gold. I found one ornament that I remember getting in a cereal box in 1983 (the date is on it but the name of the cereal is gone, I doubt it's made anymore). I have an ornament marking the Minnesota Twins success in 1987. I have a baby's first Christmas ornament from 1984. I have one marking my first Christmas as part of a married couple from 1980. The marriage is over but I still got the ornament - yeah! Several of the ornaments I made myself. There are the needle point pair of mittens and a purple needlepoint outhouse complete with toilet paper roll and bear perched on the seat (we left the door closed this year so he could have some privacy). We have several ornaments fashioned out of the tree cookies formed when we cut off the bottom of the trunk. One of our tree cookie ornaments looks either like a fried egg or a English muffin with a pat of butter in the middle. Another tree cookie has a star carved into one side and the other side lists the names of the people and the pets at the time including a zebra finch by the name of Slim Shady. As we hung the gift ornaments we remember the people who gave us the ornaments including family, teachers, friends, customers, Girl Scouts, Boy Scout leaders, and neighbors. Putting up the tree is a real trip down memory lane.
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