In my sermon at Port Williams United Baptist Church this past Sunday, as we began Advent, I talked about the effort to find room in our house for our Christmas Tree. It has always been an effort. Anita and I always talk about where to put the tree, but it always ends up in the place God pre-ordained at the beginning of time, or at least when our house was built!
Well, our tree is up! It was a multi-day endeavor. There is a soundtrack, the Charlie Brown Christmas album and Kenny Loggin’s Celebrate Me Home. The lights are hung the first day followed by the ornaments. The lights have to be just right, but the ornaments…. What is important is not the location but the stories we tell as they are hung.
These are the ones we bought in Louisville our first Christmas, even though we didn’t have a tree!
This is the one Herman gave us our first Christmas in Lenoir.
This is the one Brad and Carole brought us from Germany.
Alison’s first Christmas.
Savannah’s thumbprint mouse.
Handmade ornaments from our children.
Handmade ornaments from friends.
One of the traditions we have is finding an ornament on our trips together.
An egg from Prague
A kookaburra from Perth
A papoose from Taos
A dragon and a naked angel from Bali
A streetcar from New Orleans
A moose from Canada! (Who knew we would ever live here?)
Our latest addition, a red phone box from London.
As we hang every ornament we tell the story again. We remember the people. We offer a prayer of gratitude. We make room in our hearts for Christmas.
An assortment of our ornaments!
