Ornaments That I Love

I love Christmas tree ornaments, and over the years collected quite an interesting assortment. Some have gone back to having been on trees when I was a child because my sister and I felt a connection to those ornaments and divided up between us the ones we loved when we were helping our Dad to downsize. Others I remember buying for the very first tree that I had after I was married. My husband was in Vietnam, and I remember going to the PX at Ft. Lee in Virginia and buying glass balls that reminded me of ones that had hung on my parent's tree. Over the years there have been additions of ones handicrafted by me, relatives, and friends. Every year I would add new ones, some fancy, like those made by Department 56. Christmas 2017 I realized that it was highly unlikely that I would ever have a big Christmas tree again. Ever since my children had started having their own trees, I had been giving them an ornament every year. But that year I decided it was time to share my ornaments with my children in hopes that each year as they hung them on their trees they would appreciate the nostalgia connected with them. That Christmas I included a note to them explaining why I was beginning to divest these decorations that had meant a lot to me, and, I believed to them as well. I think there were a few tears shed when reading my accompanying note. Every year since, including this year, I have continued to send gifts from my tree to theirs. But I have one that I have kept aside and hangs on my tiny little tabletop tree. And this is him! He was handcrafted by a true artist of clay in Virginia that sold her creations in a boutique/antique sort of shop in Midlothian. I couldn't help but fall in love with him despite the fact that at the time I did not consider myself nearly the age that he depicts. These days, I am afraid that I do. But that makes him even more special. Most depictions of Christmas angels show them as young, beautiful, even virile. And there is the book that I received as a child about the "Littlest Angel" who was just a child. But there are no depictions or stories about elderly angels are there? Why not? I personally think that many have certainly earned their angel wings. So this dear little angel guy will stay on my tree as long as I have one, no matter the size of the tree. He reminds me that we all can be angels no matter our age or good looks.