A Little Corner of Christmas

This is my little corner of Christmas, my buffet server decorated with a few fun decorations. I've longed for this little area, my own corner that I can Martha Stewart to my heart's delight! It's humble by many opinions, but it's just right and simple and sweet to me (though I'm looking forward to getting the clock on the wall right there in that empty space...)



I dust it every few days, remove the random bag of brown rice that my husband set there, make sure the birds are straight and not perched too precariously on the faux branches, put the gigantic Yellow Page book that my husband placed there away into a closet, polish the wood top with some Murphy's Orange Oil spray, center the pieces again that my husband pushed over with brown rice bag & Yellow Pages (sensing a sabotaging trend yet? He thinks it's funny that I'm so careful about this display).



He really just doesn't get it. I mean, yes, we did get the tree together and he bought us a tree skirt and a tree stand and helped me string the new lights. But not one of the ornaments on the tree is from him, they were all ornaments that I'd bought or was given as a child. My grandma always gave us ornaments when I was a kid so I have the flocked teddy bears riding in a wagon and the wooden Clara from The Nutcracker hanging on our tree. And my kids have always picked out their Hallmark ornaments every year from the store. I intend to give them their ornaments when they have homes and Christmas trees of their own... Or do I?



This collection of birds from Hallmark have been purchased over the past four years for my stepson. He has always had an affinity for birds and for a long time that was all he would draw or sketch. So we picked out the first bird ornament together. And each year since I've bought him the next bird in the series. This year, I put the bird ornaments on this pretty faux white tree on my buffet and dreamed of the day when the collection is complete and the entire tree is full of these gorgeous birds.



Last week my stepson came to the house and seeing the birds on the tree, asked if he could take them home to put on his tree.



Uh, gulp...what do you mean take my gorgeous birds off the tree and take them away?! Where I'll maybe never see them again, never get to hang them just so and admire them each time I walk past the table? I've grown attached to these little birds (kind of like I never bought them for him, oops!) and now I wasn't expecting to part with them any time soon.



I wonder if my husband's mom has ornaments on her tree that were his but that she wasn't able to part with? Or is this just a girl-thing, this attachment to the annual decorations, the memory of seeing that wooden Clara ornament, the flocked teddy bears, and brass baby carriage with my son's name etched on it...and the bird collection? If I held off my stepson long enough, year after year, would he stop asking for them? When he's in his 20s, will he even care anymore? Because I for one, will miss any ornament that stops making an appearance on my tree, from those little papercrafts with the snapshot of the kids from kindergarten to the precious handpicked ornaments that they've carefully chosen from the Hallmark shop (although perhaps I think I can part with the one that plays I Want a Hippopotomus for Christmas...the one my son plays about 8 times a day?!).



I did stave him off this time, asked if I could keep the birds this year since I'd found them a lovely home on the tree that sits on my buffet? He said yes (whew!).



I'm going to ask my husband about the ornaments of his youth and see if he has anything he'd like to add to the tree. Or perhaps, I should ask his mother first... what she's willing to part with?