The story of this tree is a story of love, giving of one's self, and new traditions.

My two best friends got married a few years ago, and this is a bit of their story. In all the time that I have known Megan I have never once seen her decorate for the holidays. Jessie loves holiday decor, the lights, the ornaments, they honestly make him giddy. This year Megan decided to surprise him with the gift of a house fully decked out in traditional Christmas pretties. She employed the age old wifely tactic of duping her husband into leaving the house for the day (Glenn asked him over for board games) so that we (Megan, Toni and myself) could set to work. We drove, we shopped, we bought, we drove again, we shopped again, we bought again. Then it was time to literally deck the halls. What you see is the result.

When I got home this evening there were men around my table playing games. In the age old tradition of little sisters everywhere I taunted my big "brother" complete with the dance of gloating that I knew something he didn't, and then wandered off to finish some holiday decorating of my own. Before Jessie got ready to leave he came to find me working on the living room decorations, at which point he mentioned what a Grinch his wife can be about holiday decorating. I smiled and told him to get out so my husband could make me dinner. In truth I all but shoved him out the door because I wanted to laught at his folly.

Happy Christmas Jessie dear!


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