Christmas is Finally Put away

I finally got my Christmas decorations put away. It always takes awhile to decorate and then put everything away. Not because I put up so much but because I spend time reminising. Sometimes I feel like I'm in a time capsule. When I decorate (and then undecorate) the tree I look at all the ornaments we have collected over the years - they represent places we have lived (like the little covered bridge from Indiana or the gator from Florida) or have visited (the double decker bus from London), or things that have occured in our lives or lifetime (the diploma for my college graduation). We have ornaments with grandkids' pictures and animals for different pets. There are ornaments given to us by friends and family. Every year we would get ornaments for Alisha and Dawson, but now they have those for their trees. Sometimes I look at the decorator trees in decorating magazines and think I should do that, but then I wouldn't be able to spend time remembering the places we've lived and people we've met, the fun adventures we've had, pets we've loved, grandchildren, friends, family....