Bob and I will celebrate our 52nd wedding anniversary on the 23rd of this month. The Christmas angel that topped our tree is 50 this year. Why is that significant? I'm getting to it. The first Christmas we were married, we spent with Bob's parents. Yes, I spent my honeymoon with my in-laws! They worked and both retired early when they came home from work, so we really had the place to ourselves. Anyway, no Christmas decorations were needed.
The next year, Bob was in Germany, and I was at home with my parents, waiting for orders so our son and I could join him. No decorations for the tree needed that year, either.
Therefore, the first tree we decorated as a family is while we were in Germany. Just about all the decorations were German in nature. Mushrooms with red caps, dotted in white. They do those for good luck. They also light real candles on the tree on Christmas Eve, but we never had that kind of nerve. We bought all the decorations and lights we could afford. For the rest of the tree, we covered it in box after box of icicles. Remember those days? Almost all of those decorations and lights are gone now. Traveling is hard on anything, especially if it's of a delicate nature, like glass ornaments.
We do, however, have one ornament left from Germany. You guessed it. The Christmas angel on the top of the tree. She's almost like a miracle angel. Like I said, ornaments don't survive moves very well. The miracle of her is not only did she survive the move from Muschenheim to Butzbach, but she made it to Ft. Bliss, Texas. Van Horn Park to Leslie Ross Road. Not one, but two moves on Ft. Bliss. Then, it was off to Ft. Huachuca, Arizona.
Probably one reason I think of the angel as a miracle is that I took up ceramics in Ft. Huachuca. Unpacking after the move from there to New Jersey found my angel at the bottom of the box that contained about twodozen jars of ceramic paint! She was unharmed! Then, it was Aurora, Colorado. The driver got drunk and lost the truck on that move. When I told them a very beat up rocking chair was not mine, one man said, "It is now!"
A year later, we were on our way to Pottstown, Pa. Ten months later, we were on our way back to Ft. Huachuca. That move was especially rough. I complained repeatedly that the movers left things they promised faithfully to come back and get. When they finally decided I was married to some big wig colonel and would get them in trouble if they didn't come get the things that wouldn't fit on the truck, they sent two fellows who finally came out of a local bar with a bag of peanuts and a strange sense of humor. Complaints of broken items were met with ridicule. I told the office that I would never use them again. If they came to my door, I would meet them with a broom. The official took me seriously and made other arrangements.
The move to San Antonio was short and the furnishings were left in storage until the move to Honolulu. We had to separate our things into two different shipments on that one because, at that time, the military furnished our units. Hence, what things they didn't furnish, such as Christmas ornaments, were shipped and everything else stayed in Arizona.
Four years later, we were on our way to Rolla, Missouri for Bob's final year in the military and almost 6 years as a civilian before he took a new job and we moved to Dalton, Georgia. Things didn't work out job wise, and Bob was transferred to Smithville, Tennessee.
It was there the real reason I consider the angel a miracle came to light. By now, her silk skirt was looking a little bedraggled, as did her foil underskirt and puffy sleeves. The florist happened to know someone in town who refurbished dolls. When I handed him the angel, he took her in his hands as gently as if she were a new born baby. I was amazed at the way he handled her. But it was his comment that bowled me over. "She's wax."
WAX!!! She had been halfway around the world on several occasions and even ended up under 20+ jars of ceramic paint and she hadn't a scratch or break on her! The first thing I did was buy a glass dome to put her under and make every attempt to keep her safer than she'd been before.
Four more moves brought another severe test for her. In 2004, we endured three hurricanes in as many weeks. Frances, Ivan, and Jeanne. We were without power for nine days after Frances hit. There she stood on the counter in her glass dome, braving heat and humidity with nary a breeze and nary a melt! Ivan was mostly rain, but Jeanne was the worst as far as wind. We only lost power four days with Jeanne, but again, no electricity and no melting.
I've received or purchased several other angels over the past 50 years, but she's truly my miracle Christmas angel.
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