What's on your Tree?

 I love to investigate what gets

hung on Christmas trees.

I remember as a kid

draping silver tinsel on the tree.

We'd do it neatly for a while

 

until we got bored 

 and then end up just tossing it haphazardly on.

We'd always answer,

 we were trying

to reach the higher branches.

Of course, 

 it would all have to be taken off 

when the tree was taken down

and laid carefully back in the boxes

 to be recycled again for next year.

Our tree doesn't have tinsel,

but it does have some rather unusual things.

Instead, it's decorated with objects

we've collected

during the years that reminds us

 of where we've been

or what we did.

So for example,

do many people have a naked David statue

hiding ( actually, not too well hidden)

among the tree boughs?

How about a Chinese Santa

from Beijing

,

sporting a communist red star and sickle

in his pack?

Or a bottle of Chianti

next to a Tijuana Santa, 

next to the Three Wise Men?

This year we added a few more treasures.

An ice cream cone from 

visiting Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream factory

and a chocolate box cover from Vermont.

(The chocolates were consumed long ago!)

The ancient stone markings

from Newgrange, Ireland,

along with a few other reminders

 

of our fabulous trip to Ireland.

 We also included 

the famous

6 toed cats from Ernest Hemingway's 

home in Key West, Florida.

It's always a ritual to look at

and remember the circumstances around

each new object that's added to

our continually growing collection.

And then as the new year begins,

we start collecting all over again,

because each new year brings 

new and exciting moments to remember.

Merry Christmas,