Tradition...by Mary Hazlett

Instantly when the word tradition is said...I think of Tevya on Fiddler on the Roof singing and dancing about and talking about tradition... "Our balance is all because of tradition"  he says.

Christmas is all about tradition...isn't it?  Carolers, Christmas cards, fudge, Santa, giving of presents.... and... oh,  THE CHRISTMAS TREE!!

Every Christmas time, our family would gather round our tree...sometimes we did cut it down and sometimes we assembled it from a box... and watch the majesty of a beautiful symbol of Christmas materialize, perfectly decorated, in our family room.  True, some years we had two Christmas trees. One for the upstairs window...which was not to be touched by anyone other than my mother; and one downstairs for the children to help decorate and which Santa was to deliver the presents to.

Real or fake...the tree was the same result...a masterpiece.  My favorite part was the old fashioned bubble lights...remember those?  We would all wait until the water heated up enough to create a mesmerizing motion inside those little glass cylinders...AWESOME...that is until you touched it and had the very recognizable smell of burning flesh.

We loved our Christmas trees through the years.  It has been awesome to see how the trees evolved over the years with the tinsel icicles to the teddy bears and finally...which are still hung on the tree today... our homemade ornaments.  Cinnamon stick Santas with Snowtex beards and jute string.  Bird houses painted with brown and blue.  Dried apple slices... and, Mom's favorite..of course painted by my super talented brother Mike , the long Santa face placed near the trunk of the tree to symbolize the Spirit of Christmas.


So in the spirit of tradition...we all pitched in once again this year to create a beautiful masterpiece.  Despite the fact that wonderful Marlene has moved on from this earth...we had to do it...for her...for dad...for all of the family...for tradition.  The tree...

Just like Mom would have liked it...Perfection!  And as Tevya says,"  Because of tradition we know who we are and what God expects of us."  Thank you Mom...once again for your traditions that you have given to all of us!!  Merry Christmas!