Just finished taking the Christmas tree outside.

Yes, you read that right. Finally got the deed done. Was pretty sad, actually. We bought this tree shortly after Thanksgiving, but could not get it up until weeks later, because of the recuperating heeler that occupied half the living room.

And with all the late holiday hustling around, it never really got decorated. Yes, I got the treetop star on it, and one string of lights. A few days later the wife managed a second string of lights. But no garlands. None of the bubble lights (even bought three new strings of those).

No ornaments.

We have a set of four glass bells, our wedding bells we call them, that have been on every tree since our marriage. Except this year. A pair of mirrored glass ornaments from the Soviet Union that have been up every year since the eldest son was born. Except this year.

The glass pine cones from Czechoslovakia (which apparently came back into style this year). Our two little grape clusters. The wife's snow fairy. The Snoopy and Woodstock on skis that the boys and I always took turns hiding from each other on the tree. The wife's grandmother's painted glass rose, which comes out every Christmas season for a brief look, and then goes back safely into the box. Along with her heirloom pink sugar bells.

The metal bells that hang on the lower branches for the heelers to ring for treats. The sisters have not yet figured this tradition out, but their mother has. She'll stay in the dining room, ringing bell after bell until you finally move the bells or block her path with boxes. But not this year. She missed that.

We have enough ornaments for six trees. Seriously. Each with its own memories. And none of them came out in 2001. The only ornament on the tree was a new angel, which the wife hung near the top.

To be honest, we could have made time to get the tree properly decorated. Although, probably not together, not as a family or couple. But I don't think we were ever in the mood.

As the wife said "You can wrap a garland around Kira, 'cause she's our present this year."

A present made all the more precious after reading Liosha's sad entry today.

I still have to write the family Christmas letter, so the cards can go out.

So, the 2001 tree is standing proudly in a snowbank on the north side of the house now. Wife says we have time to get it to the recycling center this year. But the yellowed 2000 tree is still laying in the driveway, sheltering the sparrows from the cats and wind.

Doesn't this one deserve the same future?