Manger in a Squash, LED in my Heart

Will this ornament make the cut? I’m taking down the tree. One Christmas Day I walked up the street to see what Santa brought a friend and returned to find the bare tree already on the curb.  Now I wait until at least after New Years.  The year I had a mastectomy and chemo it was still up in mid-February – with a rubber chicken hanging on it in defiance to the joy I could not find that year.  The best take-down was a joyous Christmas morning when the whole thing fell over during the ruckus of our small children scrambling for booty. That was in contrast to the masterpieces my mother assembled and revered in the big picture window for the world to see while she quickly vacuumed up any evidence of joy after the presents were opened.

We’ve had this ornament for about 34 years. It’s made from half of a hollowed-out dried squash complete with seeds below the tiny first Christmas scene set in it.  Mary and Joseph are there and two tiny lambs, a green plastic tree next to the roof, and a golden shooting star flying across the top all surrounded by the dried pulp of the squash. The actual manger is missing but its presence is felt by the way the remaining figures are focused on the spot where it should be. The outside shell is painted gold and sprinkled with multi-colored glitter.  It is hung by its attached gold ribbon.  For years now it’s had a crack in the top of the squash and every year when I hang it up I think I will retire it when the tree comes down.  It’s still here.

I’m in the process of clearing out accumulated stuff.  We will have lived here in Martinez 30 years this April – eighteen in this house.  The kids, 29 and 31, have started to reclaim their boxes of stored memories; however, there is still a surfboard in the garage and huge speakers in our garden shed.  I once wondered how I would live without plastic dinosaurs in my shower.  Now I yearn for uncluttered simplicity.  I’m having a hard time achieving it.  When I looped its gold ribbon around a tuft of needles in mid-December my son and his girlfriend were there and I explained to them the story behind each ornament: the one that was on his grandparents’ first tree, the one we got on a Christmas vacation to Yellowstone, the one our daughter made in pre-school. Through them they got a brief look into my life and what's important to me.  I think I’ll be unpacking that ornament again next Christmas.