It's My Favorite Time of Year

Oh, how I love Christmas! It's always been my most favorite time of year. Even though it is usually crazy hectic (hence the lack of posting on my part lately!!), I just LOVE it. And it seems to be even better now that I have kids. It seems that you get to see everything again from a childs perspective. Dalton just loves to see all the lights, and talks about Santa all the time. And it just brings the excitement up a notch when you can see it all through your kids' eyes.

I love to decorate the tree every year. Surprisingly, we didn't have too much of an issue with the tree and Jackson this year. I thought he would try to pull it over, but for the most part he leaves it alone. We didn't get to put all the ornaments on this year. Anything breakable or anything with a hook had to be out of J's reach, so we left a good portion off. You'd also think that with all the dogs and cats running through our house, we'd have issues with them, but we don't. The only one that bothers the tree is our cat, Peanut, who occasionally tries to eat the branches. We usually find pieces hacked up on the carpet later on!

Now, I love the trees that have a theme. You have people that do a "black and white" tree, or "pink" tree, or a "ribbon" tree, or whatever, and the tree is all done up in the same color or whatnot. And I think that's really pretty and all...but, me? I love to have all different decorations.


Because when we pull those ornaments out of the attic and start decorating the tree, each one has its own story. Each one, I can tell you where it came from or who gave it to us, and when. Here are some of my favorites on our tree...

This was for Jackson's first Christmas.

And this is one that I bought for us in 2007. I also got one for each of the grandparents that year.

This was Dalton's first Christmas in 2005, which was a gift from Chris's dad and step-mom, Dennis and Jil.

I got this one for Chris one of the first years we were married.

And of course, you can't have a tree without Sally from Cars! A gift for Dalton from Dennis and Jil. We also have Lightning on the other side of the tree.

This one was a gift from my old boss at Wal-Mart, Paul.

This was also a gift from Dennis and Jil. Dalton when he was two.

And these were for Jackson.

These two little ice skaters were made by Chris's grandmother.

We bought this one a couple summers ago when we went to Colorado for Chris's brother's wedding.

This one was a gift two years ago from a woman in my rescue group, Leann.

And we bought this one when we went to Lake Tahoe for vacation in 2004.

Every year, Chris's mom, Patty, gets us an ornament from Pier One. They are glass, and painted on the INSIDE of the ornament. These have always been my favorites, because they are so pretty. I broke one this year on accident (well, of COURSE I didn't do it on purpose, people!) and I was SO disappointed. It was from 2007 and you can't replace it. I love the boxes they come in, too, each one comes in its own little padded box, covered in beautiful fabric.

But I think that THIS ONE is my most favorite. It's not really super special, I mean, it isn't made of gold, it wasn't given to me by a king or anything. And it's not like it's the most ridiculously expensive or even the prettiest one on the tree...

Last year my vet called me and told me that they had a man who was going into a nursing home. He was only 45, but had terminal cancer, and he had three dogs that were his entire life, and asked if we could help him. I called him and talked to him numerous times. His name was John. He was SUCH a nice man. He had a pug, a little mixed mutt, and a large lab/great pyrenees mix. Another rescue took the pug. And we found a foster home for his little mix mutt, and they ended up falling in love with her and adopting her. His large dog found a home in Mountain Home, AR (about three hours away), and I drove the dog over there. John cried when I came to pick up the dogs. He loved them so much, they were always his best friends. When I took them with me, he gave me a package with this ornament in it. He told me it was nothing special, that he had picked it up in Canada when he was on vacation once. Said that he couldn't offer me anything, but so appreciated me helping him find loving homes for his dogs, that he wanted me to have it. I was told later by the people that adopted the large dog that for three weeks the dog laid on the floor in the kitchen and hardly ever did anything. He ate and went out and then came in and laid on the floor and never did anything. Then one day the dog got up, and played with the other dogs, and loved all over the owners. That same day, I got a call from John's sister, and she said that she was so glad that John knew we found all the dogs homes, and that he had just passed away that morning.

It's a sad story, but it's the story that belongs to that ornament, and I will NEVER forget it. Every time I take that ornament out and put it on the tree, I will think of that young, 45 year old man, who was faced with knowing he was dying, and cried when he parted with his best friends, but did what was best for them. It's my favorite ornament on the tree, bar none.