The Box

This is the year. I can’t believe that the time has flown so fast. I can’t believe that just yesterday (it seems) we were sitting around the dining room table making things and putting the finishing touches on our creations. Now, it’s time to give the box.

Christmas time is my favorite time of year. Because we home school, we take off the whole month of December. We concentrate on making gifts, decorating and doing things in the community for the Christmas season. We get to make our house look beautiful with lights and greenery. Our Christmas tree sits in our living room window and can be seen by the passing traffic. It’s decorated with red and gold ribbon, lots of white lights, red and gold balls…and all of our homemade ornaments.

We started a tradition when my oldest son was about 2 years old. We started making Christmas ornaments. That first year it was a plastic cup (blue) decorated with ribbons and Christmas cards that we cut up. I poked a hole in the bottom of the cup and put a ribbon through it so that we could hang it like a bell on the tree. I still have that first ornament. It’s in my son’s box.

One year we got mini clay pots and painted them with acrylic paints and put in a bell that would clink when we hung them. Other years we’ve bought wooden ornaments from the craft store and painted them. We have bought ceramic ornaments ready to paint. We have taken material in different patterns and cut them in the shapes of Christmas trees, candy canes and bells – sewed them and stuffed them and hung them up. We’ve made pinecones into sparkly, beaded, belled and ribboned decorations. If you name it; we’ve probably made it.

Each year we would make our newest creations and hang them on our tree alongside the previous year’s crafted ornaments. Each year the kids would get better at crafting their ornaments and were proud of their creations. We would buy a few for good measure and divide them up amongst the kids for them to add to their “collection”. The idea being that when they left home and had a family of their own, they would have a box of ornaments for their own tree….someday.

This year my son is expecting his first child. The due date is mid-March. He will have his own family. Therefore, it is time to give him his box for Christmas.

It’s the first box we’ve given away. Every year prior to this, I have been able to lovingly hang the homemade baubles on the tree in our living room and reminisce over the fun and creative times we’ve had. But, this year his box will go. This year, he will have the option of hanging his own ornaments on his own tree…that won’t be in this house. It will be in his home…with his family.

I’m glad that he is beginning his own family. Even so, it’s hard for me to let go… but I know that I must. Next year, he will have his own family and his own Christmas. This is the end of Christmas as I know it; but the beginning of a new kind of Christmas.

Hopefully, he and his family will continue the tradition of making Christmas ornaments at Christmas time. That time together as a family making something and helping the children make their things was very special to us. I hope that it is passed on and that the family time will continue with his family. As a grandmother, I know that I will be included and am looking forward to it.

But, today….it is hard to give away the box. It’s not just a box. It’s memories. It’s love. But, love, when given, gives back so much more.

Son, enjoy your box. Enjoy the memories. Make some of your own. Pass on the love.