Today has been a tough day with some sad news, so I find myself in front of the Christmas tree at 2am grateful for the happy glow unable to sleep, and glad to relax in the familiar glow of warm white American Christmas lights that Stephanie shipped me from America last week.
There is something beautifully nostalgic and comforting about their tone and the way they shift just a bit every time i move my head – I can see them at my parent’s house as my dad wraps them around the tree, at our house in NC with Madeline staring at them with her barely 1 month old eyes in fascination, at them on our first tree in Kenya bridging an ocean as we put up our tree.
Belle called it our “memory tree” a couple years ago. As we pulled out Santa mugs and she made homemade hot chocolate a couple weeks ago as we put on each ornament, I smiled that the girls knew the stories as well as I did.
So, welcome to our Christmas tree, and a smattering of its memories that span almost half a century:
My mom made this ornament for my Dad when she was 6 months pregnant with me – I took it from her tree for our tree when we moved to Kenya 6 years ago
Childhood memories- from an ornament my mom received when I was 1 and the snowman I painted so proudly in Mrs. Rullman’s 5th grade class when I was 10.
Every year of my childhood, Aunt Charlotte and Uncle Art gave me a Precious Moments ornament for Christmas and I have several on our tree, reminding me of their faithfulness to pray for me as my godparents as I grew up. The snowman is from Aunt Barbara, from a Christmas gift she gave us before we left for Kenya – a reminder of the haven their home in Tennessee has been for our family
These are from high school – one made at my annual Christmas party with my friends with familiar signatures on the back, hand cut by my dad for each of my friends to paint and decorate. The mouse is from my Latin teacher, handmade by Miss Sims, given to each of her AP Latin students our senior year as we translated the Aeneid.
These two are from our wedding – the angel given to my by my mom right before I walked down the aisle (my parents’ tree has several ornaments from their Christmas wedding) and our first Christmas ornament given to us by the Washburns.
These ornaments are from Taiwan – the left one our Taiwanese friends joked looked like David when he smiles, and the right one we bought on Christmas day at a bookstor. No one seemed to be celebrating Christmas that day and we were missing family- but now it serves as a sweet reminder of our beautiful year there.
Mr. Schlotzhauer spent hours on his scroll saw making beautiful wooden art, and my dad soon followed making on ornament for everyone in the congregation every Christmas eve to remind them of his sermon. I have probably 20 ornaments my dad carved on the tree and 3 from Mr. Schlotzhauer, reminding me of St. Johns – the church that was my home and haven growing up.
These are a few of our Birmingham memories – a snowflake from the year David decided to learn to weld, and I decided to make jewelry. A santa from the year he picked out our annual ornament because residency was too overwhelming for me to do it, and the gumdrop frog from Soho Sweets where we used to escape to eat gelato and let the girls run around when I was post call. . .
I don’t know where Spidey came from, but the girls insist it is the last ornament placed on the tree by David every year as we finish hanging ornaments. The grinch I bought early on because david used to have a random stuffed Grinch in his station wagon when we were dating. I vividly remember playing with it absent-mindedly in some of our earliest conversations even before we were officially together.
Our tree is also covered in glass balls with milestone events from each year – of belle’s birth announcement or our family picture the year we flew to Kenya with our first prayer card, to our wedding photos to random moments – with a little (or lot) of glitter to catch the light.
Many ornaments remind us of friends near and far – like this red one from Faith, one of the very first interns I worked with in Kijabe, or a Halloween photo with Rose, Madeline’s very first friend when she was still an infant. They let me tell the girls the stories of faithful friends and the generosity that surrounds us . . .
These two show the contrast of last Christmas and this one. The one on the left we had made in Disney world with the girls and blown by a glass artist in Epcot surrounded by thousands of people, and the one on the right Belle made while we decorated the tree this year – a Gingebread man complete with a mask. We didn’t even write 2020 on it, sure we will remember the year.
When we left Birmingham for Kenya, I gave away 30 or 40 of the ornaments from our tree to friends and mentors, to carry the tradition of the memory tree over to them – to know a piece of our hearts was with them as well. I love that our tree is full and that every single ornament has a story attached – that it is a living history of our family added to every year. As people have posted photos of their trees this year, I peer at the ornaments – wondering at their stories, and wonder at the moments that make up our lives –
Thank you for sharing your “Tree” with us. You are fondly present in our home this Christmas season, both with memories and pics of our time together.
Someday we will share these memories face to face both on this earth, and in the next.
With the Host of heaven we celebrate; “Glory to God in the highest …”
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about the Shirks
Arianna is a pediatrician and David is a photographer and executive director of Friends of Kijabe. We moved to Kijabe, Kenya in September 2014 with our girls to begin the next step of our great Adventure. . .
Thank you for sharing your “Tree” with us. You are fondly present in our home this Christmas season, both with memories and pics of our time together.
Someday we will share these memories face to face both on this earth, and in the next.
With the Host of heaven we celebrate; “Glory to God in the highest …”