Christmas is a time for family traditions. We each establish our own family traditions, some handed down by the generations and others we establish as our own family grows.
Each year Wanda and I, along with our daughters, unpack the lights, ornaments and decorations, and together we decorate the tree. We enjoy stretching out the light strings, finding the burned-out bulbs and figuring out how to get the lights working again. The tree is then decorated, with each of us picking out our favorite ornaments.
In August 2002 I located my birth mother. In December of that year she attended her first of many of my Heritage Philharmonic concerts, as we began to build our relationship. The following May she surprised me with a wonderful birthday gift, an old wooden wine box. We opened it together, and in the box were 44 Christmas ornaments, one for every Christmas since my birth.
My mother shared with me her family’s Christmas tradition. Each year at Christmas time they would select a fresh Christmas tree and bring it home. Their favorite place to put the tree was in the doorway between the den and the living room. The family gathered together to decorate the tree, with Mom always decorating the side facing the living room and her three children helping by decorating the den side.
Each year new ornaments were added for each child and one new ornament on her side of the tree. When the Christmas holiday had passed, the ornaments from her side of the tree were stored carefully in a wooden wine box in preparation for the next year. This tradition of decorating the tree continued for many years.
Each year, from the time she gave me up for adoption, she had purchased one ornament for her side of the tree. Each year she carefully stored those ornaments in the wine box, hoping that someday she would have the opportunity to share them with me.
As we prepared to celebrate Christmas 2003, we purchased and decorated a Christmas tree together for the first time. That year there were two Christmas trees in the Quibell home, and our family traditions were adapted to include my mother.
My mother is visiting again this week and will again attend the Heritage Philharmonic Holiday Pops concert. This year’s performance is at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in the Blue Springs High School performing arts center. I hope you will come join us and share the 65th year of this community concert tradition with your family!
God bless you all and have a very merry Christmas!