the squibix family blog

Our delay wasn't laziness or business, but tradition: we're old fashioned and don't want to front-load the Christmas season too much. But everybody else does, so when we pulled into the farm we saw there were only six trees left, and when we inquired we heard that they didn't plan to get any more. With only a single tree in our price range, our selection was easy! We asked them to take a foot off the bottom so it would fit in our house, then watched with delight as it was loaded onto the car.

Once home we had to set it up right away—quietly, since Leah and Lijah were sick in bed. Both boys were great helpers in all phases of the project. Their extreme eagerness to get to the ornaments lent them energy for other, preparatory work, and they were appropriately delighted when the time came for their reward.

As we decorated we talked over the origins of the ornaments; a goodly number of them are handmade in living memory of Harvey, at least. Harvey was thrilled the whole time: "Now it's really starting to feel like Christmas," he said about halfway through. But my favorite moment came when Zion spotted a tapered red glass bauble. "Look," he cried, "a blood icicle! A bloodcicle!"

The morning it felt like Christmas morning as the boys came downstairs, full of delight and ready to hang out with the tree. After I left for work they made a little home beneath it and even even asked if they could sleep there. We said yes; even though they decided not to in the end it demonstrates the depths of their affection.

Now all we need are some presents to go under it!