Oh Christmas Tree!

I guess I am still getting used to this blogging thing. Yesterday I wrote three long paragraphs waxing poetic about how autumn had lit a particular Japanese maple’s red leaves on fire only to have all but five of them to drop to the ground this past week. I think I was trying a bit too hard to be poignant, so I deleted it. Maybe its best for me to skip over fall and post about winter – Christmas in particular – since husband and I got our Christmas tree last night.

This tree is a beauty – it’s the fullest we have ever had. Our plan was to get it in the afternoon and spend the afternoon decorating it and the rest of the house while blasting Christmas carols and drinking hot cider. Instead, we spent the day at the police station getting our finger prints done (well, not the entire day, but long enough to mess up our plans) for our adoption paperwork. So, in the evening, we bought the tree and put it up. I’ve never been able to have a tree up without jumping into the decorating process, but last night I was on the edge of my seat watching the Pats narrowly advance to 12-0 (I love you, Tom Brady!). This is certainly the first time Monday Night Football (or getting my fingerprints taken for that matter!) has been part of my Christmas tradition but when your team is undefeated you have to make some sacrifices.

So this afternoon while husband was at work I put the lights and ornaments on the tree. I absolutely love unwrapping each one and remembering where I bought it or who gave it to me. Husband and I have a tradition of buying an ornament from any place we vacation or travel to on business - a sailboat from Key West, ceramic flip flops from Puerto Rico, a cable car from San Francisco, a Panda from Hong Kong, a star from Malaysia, and a ceramic snowman and starfish from St. John. Some ornaments are momentos from the big events in our life: pictures from our wedding day, our first Christmas together, and our first home. And we have loads from our childhoods. These are definitely not as attractive, but I love thinking about how many trees they have hung on since husband and I were born. Husbands’s mother had a tradition of buying her children ornaments each Christmas. When we got our first tree, she gave us all of the ones she bought for him and now they hang on our tree.

All this has gotten me to thinking about traditions. Husband and I don’t really have many traditions of our own; I suppose I have been waiting until we had children to build them. Little did we realize how long that might take and we are equally clueless about how much more waiting the adoption process has in store for us. The truth is, I can now accept the fact that I have to continue waiting for a baby – which is huge progress because I certainly could not have said that a year or two ago. What I can’t accept is waiting for any other part of my life to begin as I did with infertility. Traditions built between my husband and I now can be something to cherish amongst ourselves, and if we can adapt them to fit around a baby one day that will just make them even sweeter.