Birds Nests

Tonight we put up our tree.  Boxes of decorations were brought out.  Each one so carefully packed up the season before.  I have many ornaments that are well over 30 years old.  I was one of those kind of people who couldn't wait to have a home and a family of my own, so I started gathering early.  In fact, some of my most fragile and favorite ornaments I found when I was still a teenager.  The ones I am thinking of are formed from very thin slices of wood and look like a flower or a star with a little red wooden bead in the center.  They are very European and traditional looking.  I have ruined one, so I treat the remaining five like fragile eggs.  Speaking of eggs, I also love birds nests, and I especially love them in my Christmas tree.  Many years ago I also started saving the nests I found when I was out walking.  I then started going on nest hunts after all the leaves had fallen.  I love the amazing intricacy of a nest design.  I love the idea of this comfortable cozy hidden place in the crook and safety of a tree.  I imagine the adult birds fluttering about gathering just the softest things they could find for their eggs.  Home.  A beautiful home for baby birds.   A great metaphor, and I think it really captures my sentiments about home too.   

 

The boys like the tree decorating as much as I do, and tonight they helped me get the tree in its stand and they hung many of the ornaments.  I want to say here that as they hung them they were playing.  Kuba was a dog owner and Anders was the dog.  Anders picked the ornaments up gently with his mouth and carefully hung them from the lowest branches and Kuba would give him a treat for completing this. The treat was a piece of cereal, corn chex to be exact.  Kuba, as the human, could hang them higher and use his hands.   This made for a very entertaining experience for me as I watched them work so nicely, man and his best friend together, decorating the tree. 

 

Most of our ornaments are made of straw and are from Sweden.  Our family in Sweden has sent us many, many ornaments over the past ten years, and I like all of them.  There are red wooden dala horses, red wooden hearts, plump little tomten and a variety of other sweet things.  There are hand painted clothespins from Poland, brought to me by a traveling friend.  I don't think she even knew how much they would mean to me.  There are lots of feathered birds, and of course birds nests.  I'm almost finished decorating now, but I remembered I wanted to do one post a day, so interrupted my work to write this.  There's something nice about it.   Writing about this as it's actually happening and as the experience is so alive.