I did not have him in me life long, 3 1/2 years. Yet the amount of life we lived in these years was enormous.

Christmas was a special time for us both and he gave me many gifts. The greatest of these was my son.

Things happened fast for us. After being together for only six months we knew that we planned to be together for life.

The first christmas we shared together, we went on a ornament buying spree and more than a responsible amount of money was spent to start the foundation of what we believed would be our own little family's tradition.

We had spoken with excitement and wonder about while growing up, when the Christmas ornaments were unearthed, pulled down from attics, dragged out from under beds. he was an only child so he never had to fight over certain perceived to be special ornaments with siblings.neither did he have heated debates each year over which tree to buy.

So that first Christmas he let me pick the tree and we both chose several ornaments from the Waterford collection, something unheard of in our 5 and 10 world of ornaments.

Once we dressed the tree, however,it became apparent that it was too sparse

and we had to run to the dollar store to fill in the empty spaces

By our second Christmas we were married and our ornaments were not used. We spent the holidays with his recently widowed mother on the other side of the country. She was herself quite ill but more so because of her lack of will to go on without her love.

Still she had reason to celebrate. her only son of 46 years was finally married and she got extra jolly when we mentioned the family we planned to have.

I am certain that her prayer had a lot to do with our son either being conceived in her house or shortly thereafter. She would declare the sex of our child long before the doctors could. She was right though she never actually got to see him.

Our third Christmas was magical for we were three. our little less than 3month old son added 3 ornaments to our collection. A brass crescent moon with his name and birth date engraved and with a star hanging from it with a locket size picture of him. A hallmark ornament given to him by my mother of a teddy bear holding a #1 and a banner reading, "Baby's first X-mas" and a Waterford baby's bottle which also has his name on it.

we would not have forth Christmas. Almost, we were preparing and had taken our first family Christmas picture to send.

My son is 8 now and I an left to recount the meaning of each ornament. We continue our family tradition by us each choosing a new ornament each year.

This year, two days ago we lost an ornament Charles had chosen that first Christmas. I had teased him about it. it was a Snowman with a jovial smile, so much like his. It hit the ground, my son apologized. I was surprised that I did not get upset. the paper thin glass could no withstand the wooden floor.

It was like life uncertain and fragile

That was beautiful

this writing moved me....such is life

I agree

thanks all a hard time of year

very nicely done...

poignant and real
as always
light on the baggage

Very beautifull. I liked it