How emotional do you get while trimming the tree?

DH and I started trimming the tree this week, and his idea and my idea are completely different. This is the first real Christmas since we got married and are in our own house. Also the first real Christmas since my mom died, and I unpacked all of the family ornaments...and each has a story. This is the one my great-grandmother gave to me off her tree when I was around 4 because I fell in love with it; this one used to always be on Grandma's tree; this one was made by my Great Grandfather (who I never met) during WW2 and was a gift to my mom; this ugly thing was brought over from Ireland when my dad's Great Grandparents immagrated....that kind of thing.

DH's idea of decorating is put the lights on, throw some balls on and call it a day. Not that he didn't care about the stories behind them, but he just wanted to get it done and have it be over with. And, to me that isn't Christmas. I NEED to go through the stories that I remember.

DH's family didn't really have any traditions for inside decorations, their's were all outside. We're using an angel tree topper that came from his family and I thought that would be nice. But, it means nothing to him. He says he doesn't even remember it (and she is beautiful!!).

I guess I'm just extra emotional because of going through all the Christmas stuff. Sometimes I think it would just be easier if we started from scratch and got all new ornaments just for us, but then I think that defeats the whole purpose.

Does anyone else shed a few tears at Christmas time?

Definately! It will be 5 years since Nana passed. The 2nd Christmas without Nana, Mom decided to give us the tree and go victorian. Lots of Nana's decor was very old and not holding up to well. We got rid of the stuff then so we don't have moments like you. However Christmas Eve is a big event for our family. Just shopping for food gets mom all depressed.

Yesterday I was moving stuff in our bedroom and found a box of pictures. In the box was a card for Nana that I never got to give to her for her last Christmas (she was in the hospital and coming home Christmas Eve). I just lost it.

Everytime I clean Nana's hold tv cabinet I start crying. It was her baby and she would nag me about cleaning every inch of it. I still hear her voice nagging.

Oh I feel the same way about my decorating. Actually the last time I was at my Grandparents they had my Mom and I going through their attic to take things that were ours or if we wanted something of theirs. I asked my Grandma if I could go through their Christmas ornaments since they don't put up a big tree anymore (just a set of 3 small pre-lit and pre decorated ones). I told her I wanted something on my tree that I could look at and say that was Gram and Gramp's! She said my Aunt had gone through some already so to take them all.

Well I didn't find much, and there were 2 in particular that I'd been looking for that I didn't find. So after we got back (we live a few states away) I e-mailed my Aunt to ask her about those 2 because they were kind of hand-made crafty looking ones. So I wanted to see if she had them so I could look at them sometime to try to make them for my tree. When she e-mailed me back she said she didn't have any of Gram's ornaments but she'd check when she pulled hers out this year and she thought my Mom had some. Sooo, I'm torn between wondering if my Aunt is telling me the whole truth (because I remembered my Gram saying a few years ago my Aunt had gone through her ornaments) and feeling bad that I did take what all I found, which was about 24 old glass balls and a few other odds and ends. I did tell her I was sorry for taking them all and that I'd bring them back up with me next time I come if she wants any, because she should have what she wanted since they belong to her mother. She didn't respond, but with what happened after I told her about my little cousin on myspace, I'm just not sure how she feels about me.

So that's been my holiday sentimental drama for the year! I do have a few ornaments from my Mom and I have my childhood ones too. I also have some handmade things from my Great Aunt that I hang around the house. Those are just the most special treasures to me. I'm not a particularly teary person, but I suppose someday after my Grandparents are gone (which I hope is a long way off yet!) that I sure will be. I just see those little things as a way of keeping them with me and just close to me, since we live so far apart.

Well, I do, but usually AFTER repeatedly yelling at Loki to "Stop it!!!" (He managed to knock the tree down last week, only hours after we put it up--water all over the floor).

Actually, it's not the tree trimming that makes me cry--it's "Silent Night". I'm not sure why, but, especially when I hear it for the 1st time in the season, it turns on the waterworks. It may be related to the WWI story about how the Germans and the English called a cease-fire for Christmas. On Christmas Eve, one side started singing it in camp; the other side, also in camp, heard it, and both sides started singing it (in German and English) in unison. And, I always think of the lyrics/sing the lyrics in German, for some reason--it just seems more appropriate (it was written in German). Must have been my German grandmother's thing, don't know.

When I start playing the Christmas CDS, I start thinking about those I loved, who are no longer here, and I start crying. This inlcudes my immediate family, who are alive, but who cut me out of their lives ever since Christmas Eve 2 years ago. This makes an already emotional holiday even worse for me. some of them live 2 miles down the road, yet it's almost like they're dead, and I have no family, apart for DH and his wonderful family, who have treated me so well, especially since then. Thank God I have them...