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"I took the day off work yesterday. The kids were still off for the holiday break, and after nearly five days away from each other, I felt like we needed some &amp;quot;just us&amp;quot; time. I had managed to get the tree up and lit on Friday, got all the decorations down from the attic, and together we Christmassed the place up. Anna, David and I were putting ornaments on the tree when she remarked that it didn&amp;#039;t look like we have as many. We don&amp;#039;t, of course. Last year after the holiday, I packed two separate ornament boxes \u2013 mine and his. His didn&amp;#039;t hold much \u2013 just a few ornaments from his Mother&amp;#039;s tree, and a scant few we&amp;#039;d received from his side of the family over the years. I asked him if he wanted any others, and he said no. I&amp;#039;m not sure if that&amp;#039;s because he wanted his Christmas tree to be all new and shiny, or if he just didn&amp;#039;t want the memories associated with the ornaments. We generally bought an ornament or two each year, representing something we did like a vacation, or a milestone we shared. I look at our tree and I see a wonderful life. He looks at our tree and sees all the grand vacations we didn&amp;#039;t take, I suppose. It still looks odd to me not to have my bride and groom ornament front and center, as it was for so many years. We bought it the summer after we married, and it hung there, porcelain and perfect until I went to put the tree up last year. I reached in the ornament box, intending to put it somewhere around the back of the tree, and in its compartment were the broken remains. Nothing else in the box was damaged. I guess it was an omen. I still love to look at my tree, and Anna still loves to hear the stories associated with every ornament. This year&amp;#039;s ornament, I added myself last night after the kids were in bed. It&amp;#039;s not much. In fact, I paid less than $3 for it at Wal-Mart, but it&amp;#039;s perfect. A peace sign. And this time it&amp;#039;s plastic, so it won&amp;#039;t be broken. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.womansday.com/relationships/dating-marriage/a45256/the-memory-tree-1285/>