Christmas Tree

In the spring of 2002 a terrible thing happened to us. It was the same spring when we had bought our first dream  house.

My husband had seen his colleagues being let go and was kind of anticipating the job-cut. With this in mind  we set out to purchase   our house. Then, in April the news was official. 

I was a stay at home mum taking care of two kids and my little one had his Obstetric Brachial Plexus Injury.

We managed with whatever we had. As usual the bills came first and the rest later.

I was baking everyday trying to cut down on costs. We didn’t eat out or go to the movies. I managed our grocery budget  extremely well. We didn’t eat as well as we would have liked but we always had “something” to eat. The children’s sustenance  and needs were taken care of first.

You see, after life threw us a curve ball by the name of Obstetric Brachial Plexus Injury (OBPI) everything else we encountered was a home run.

http://www.assh.org/Public/HandConditions/Pages/BrachialPlexus.aspx

 

Times were really rough, but we kept it to ourselves. Only one other friend knew of our struggles. He would send us money saying it was for the kids and not for us. “Thank you, Tom for your kindness.” It meant so much to us.

 

After a few months my husband found a great job. However, we were by than just catching up with everything else. The mortgage payments were coming out of our little leftover savings.

 

In December, Christmas time rolled around and we were just hanging in there. My husband and I were playing catch up with the bills and the credit cards were maxed out.

 

The kids were used to a festive Christmas feast with a huge Christmas tree and presents. We knew we had to tone it down a lot. This wasn’t how we’d envisioned our first Christmas in our new house.

A week before Christmas my husband told me that we had $80 to spend.

The only money available for the Christmas spending … that was a lot of money.

 

We sat in our scarcely furnished living room, in our dream house, and discussed in the many ways to spend the eighty dollars, wisely.

 

There was a dilemma; should we spend the money on the turkey, cakes, goodies and presents, which the kids were looking forward too?

Or, should we spend it on buying a Christmas tree and presents that the kids were so looking forward too.

 

$80 for – festive dinner, presents and a tree?

How were we going to pull this one off?

 

From time to time my little one who had been eavesdropping would run up to me and ask if he could go with daddy to pick out the Christmas tree?

 

After much antagonizing thoughts, my husband and I decided on the food and presents for the kids. My husband was going to explain to the kids aged 2 and 5 that we will not be having a tree that year.

We knew they wouldn’t understand, but we were going to try anyway.

 

Just than, exactly than, the phone rang. What happened next can be interpreted in so many ways. My husband picked up the phone and started talking.

It was our former next-door neighbor from the old house. The timing was miraculously impeccable, as though our dear neighbor had been listening in on our conversation. You had to be there at that precise moment to experience it.

“Hey Eugen, would you like a Christmas tree? It‘s an expensive one. We haven’t used it for the past few years because the cats kept pulling at the decorations. It’s taking up space and we wanted to know if you’d like to have it. You can pick it up now.”

Eugen, my husband hangs up the phone and tells me, “We got a Christmas tree.”

 

“Are you kidding me?”

 

Need I tell you what my husband’s reaction or mine was? I just couldn’t believe it.

“What do you mean?” I said.

 

“I’ve got to get it from Nigel, now.” said my husband and off he dashes out of the house grabbing his jacket, jumping into his snickers in snow about three feet high.

 

It was so meant to be. I couldn’t believe our luck. We bought our food and presents for the kids and took time decorating our precious Christmas tree. We had one of the best Christmases, ever. It was a lot to take in, but in a good way.

We felt joy and comfort celebrating our first Christmas in our new house.

My kids were singing Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree, how lovely are your branches… standing around our Christmas tree.

 

Our house turned out to be a great home. As a mum I grew up in this house together with my children. We had turned a house into a loving, fun filled home. Over the years we invested thousands of dollars into our house, bought new cars, new furnitures, getting rid of the old ones and redecorated rooms.

 

With our Christmas tree though, it’s a whole different story.

It’s the one and only Christmas tree for us. It never ever crossed our minds to buy a real tree, again.

 

Christmas time is the most wonderful time of the year. Why? Hmm… let me see, my birthday is in December, just a decent number of days before Christmas, I love snow—the more the merrier, I’m looking forward to a great winter. The winter solstice is in December, a new year is coming up with new resolutions to achieve. It’s truly the most wonderful time of the year. It’s about the only time of the year when most people believe in miracles.

 

The 7 feet high majestic Barcana fir tree stands tall in our spacious same old new home, looking life-like with densely clustered green branches, adorned with every Christmas ornament my kids ever made for me, every item having a deep meaning or a story to tell.

A story one day I hope to tell my grandchildren. Call it what you must … for me it was pure magic.

“An angel so swiftly with a wand spreading joy and belief at the right moment to

a family who needed it .”

 

Merry Christmas to you and yours and, God Bless!