The Green in Christmas

Middle School 51                                                                                                         Meredith Lunceford

English                                                                                                                                     11/5/13 707

Memoir:My Christmas Tree

     When the jolly Christmas music begins to play on the radio, I know that I can get excited about decorating a beautiful pine tree in our living room. I am always there to pick out a tree. I love that feeling where you can think Isn't that tree beautiful? I helped chose it. I look for a tree that is singing for me to come to it. I try and find a tree that wants me to find it. As we go through the place where my dad decides to get the tree that year, he feels each one looking for a tree that isn't too dry. Dad checks the body to make sure it's not lopsided or too tall. I just make sure that the tree seems right.

If Carolyn, my younger sister, doesn't join us to get the tree, she makes sure to see it as soon as we are home. She sprints to the door with a smile covering her entire face. Carolyn then pulls on my jacket repeatedly saying Can I see it?! She always chooses then to help us carry it. My dad puts the tree in the green and red base as I go to the kitchen to get a cup of water to fill the base. My older sister, Myah, and my mom find the box of ornaments and our Madame Alexander china angel doll that sits on the top of the tree watchfully.

     As the box of ornaments is opened, it feels like the paper wrapped objects in that box fill the room with happiness and excitement. The paper makes a dry crinkling noise as I find my favorites. I look for my snowflake decorated with tiny bells among many others. My dad always has to tell me to slow myself. My mother reminds me to be careful with the things that I love. I have never broken any of them and sometimes I wonder why they don't trust me with them. At least they let me do anything at all. I am always the first to place an ornament on the tree after the lights are stranded over the tree. Finding the right branch can be tricky, but it all pays off.

     Once the lights are turned on, the room comes to life. I want to pause that moment and keep it alive forever. We are all smiling, or at the very least having a nice expression. The ornaments shine reflecting the light. You can smell the pine and it always makes me feel like I'm back in Maine, the place where I feel most at home. We have the red, green, and white Christmas candles adding cinnamon to the mix of smells and putting a comforting dim, yellow light in the room which puts shadows that are almost graceful on the walls. Carolyn's brown eyes reflect the image of the tree and Myah is actually looking happy though she may be tired from homework and school. This Christmas, I will be sure to make a wish that it could always be that way.