Christmas Tree

Christmas season is over....so is the Epiphany and yet I cannot bear to take the tree down. I have asked myself why so many times. It took me forever to get it up this year. Advent season was underway and I usually have it up in time for that............like usually the weekend after Halloween my house is in bloom with Christmas as I just love the meaning and all the decorations. I have decided it was because John was not here for the holidays or any part of it this year. We were not able to celebrate it together and I miss that. We do not have a typical Christmas in our home Year #1=sick child in the hospital and on standby orders to deploy year #2=he was deployed year#3= I was pregnant and unable to travel as I had to have iv's every week. year#4=deployed year#5=gave birth on the 21st of Dec and traveled to see family year#6=deployed again. So as you see we have no normal holiday in our house.... and our anniversaries are always spent apart not one have we ever been together..... so needless to say I am not missing any traditions with him we have not really been able to make any but I missed him terribly irregardless.
We do not even have the tradition of being together but this year it seemed so odd him not being here...
okay so back to the tree. I have decided it is going to stay up. We will change ornaments to seasonal favorites but it will be up. That way no matter when my hubby comes home we will be able to celebrate something together whether it be the 4th of July, Memorial Day, Labor Day etc.etc.
I went to the dollar store today and found pink wire ribbon that I have encircled my tree with and found some white silk roses and have started changing the decorations out to Valentine's Day. I will have the girls make some heart type crafts to add to the glory of the tree but with the white lights it already looks pretty and fresh. A nice change from Christmas. I look forward to adding things like Americana items in the future. Have to say this is something to look forward to.......Hubby has a tree too so we can also send him some stuff for his as we redo ours..............a way to keep us connected despite the miles.