Karla shoved a final box into the Christmas storage closet. She leaned her back against the door still she heard the click of the latch. One step away confirmed that the door would not burst forth like mount Vesuvius. Every year she promised herself that she’d sort through the boxes of excess ornaments, wade through some of the seldom used decorations, every year she put the downsizing off. Who was she kidding? Everything in the closest held some kind of sentimental value to either her or Mitch. No doubt it would be sorted through eventually, but not by her.
She took a step towards the hall and halted with her hand over the light switch. A cry of frustration gurgled in her throat as her gaze swept across the single box still sitting on the bed. Oh, Man.
Karla sat on the bed and pulled the lid off the box. Tinsel and glitter twinkled in the overhead light. She touched each of the special items resting inside, the corners of her lips tugging up as she remembered the first time she’d seen the individual pieces.
She picked up a reindeer ornament made from a large milk bone dog biscuit. The horns were crooked, and the nose had been replaced several times, but Nicolas had made it in Kindergarten and after all these years, it still survived. There was a canning ring surrounding a picture of her daughter. The glitter around the toothless smile shed a little more every year, but it still held a place of honor on the tree every December. Pipe cleaner bells and snowmen trimmed in buttons and ragged ribbon each spoke of a memory of Christmas past. A Styrofoam angel with a lopsided halo grinned at her from the corner of the box. The angel sat atop a stack of homemade snowflakes. White and silver beads grown dull with time.
Each of these ornaments told a story of pride and love. Each had been solemnly presented to Karla with a smile, a hug, and a whispered “I love you, mommy”, as she bent to their level , or snuggled the giver in her lap.
She closed up the box and stared at the closet she’d just forced closed. Necessary Downsizing? Maybe, but not this year.***What's your favorite homemade ornament?***