Memorial Christmas Tree

Heading into the holiday season without your loved ones is hard for anyone. But entering the holiday season without your children is a special kind of torture. There is no one to wake you up at 6am just so they can open presents. No one who makes you a miles long Christmas lists, hoping they’ll get EVERYTHING on the list. No child like wonder over the magic of Christmas. For me this season there was no magic, no lists, no 6am wake up call, just emptiness.

My Mom knew this would be a hard season so she came up with a brilliant idea. We put up a Christmas tree at the accident site and asked anyone who wanted to remember the boys this holiday season to put an ornament on the tree. I was unprepared for the outpouring of support we got from people during the busiest season of the year.

At first I was afraid our little tree wouldn’t receive any ornaments other than family. Then slowly friends started putting ornaments on the tree. Then ornaments started arriving in the mail from friends and family to far away to make the drive. By the time Christmas day arrived our tree was so full there was no more room for ornaments. I think at one point we even discussed a second tree.

In all there were over 110 ornaments placed on the tree including one hand made garland. Ornaments were placed from 9 different states, reaching from coast to coast. Over 36 families participated. And I received over 90 photos.

I cannot say THANK YOU enough to all of our family and friends who took the time out of their busy holiday schedules to remember Dawson and Devin. It makes me cry just to remember the outpouring of love and support I’ve received this last year, but especially during the holiday season. Thank you all . . . . .


The following photo's document some of the people who visited the tree. .

 These photo's are of my nephew putting ornaments on the tree that were sent by my cousin and aunt in Iowa

 My friends Rachel and Travis came with their 1 year old little boy to put ornaments on the tree. I went out to the site with them. Rachel took a photo of me studying an ornament placed on the tree by Dawson's class.

 I was floored and honored when the psychology professor from college and his wife made a stop by the tree. Also the pastor of our church and his family came out. I think the look on Ken's face says it all.

 Here you can see the progression of the tree filling up with ornaments.

 Some of my favorite ornaments: (I was only able to put a few of my favorites because this blog post is already to long.)  :)

 These are filled with sand and sea shells from Winema - where the boys went to summer camp

 I love these ornaments: the Ben 10 symbol and the Transformer symbol. My boys were really into these

 Topping the list of favorite were these silly band and Lego ornaments my cousin made.

The rest of the photo's I took on New Years Eve . . . . the day before we took the tree down.

 I placed these 2 ornaments on the tree. The top photo is self explanatory. The bottom is a Lego guy not only for Dawson's love of building things, but also for Devin's love of little and unique things. I think he would have loved this over sized Lego person. :)

                  This giant ball is signed by Dawson's school friends.

 This garland is one of the things people made with pony beads. I thought it was so cool, because Dawson loved pony beads. Apparently last year he spent 2 weeks in school making pony bead creations for his family for Christmas. I still have mine and Devin's are lined up on the windowsill in their room.

 Thank you for looking at the whole blog post. I know it was a long one. I thought I'd share what will happen to the ornaments. I've decided when I start decorating for Christmas again, I'll have 2 trees. One that I decorate for me and one as a memorial. I'll put all these ornaments on the second tree not only to remember my boys, but to remind me what wonderful friends and family I have. Again Thank You all for your support, love and especially prayers.