The Prettiest Little Angle

Growing up my family always had an angle atop our Christmas tree. As a little girl I remember thinking she was the most beautiful think I had ever seen. She was small and simple with a delicate white dress and tiny little wings. Her hands came together as if in prayer and in between them was the tiniest little candle that lit up...perfect.

As a young child I remember learning about heaven. That loved ones who had died watched from above, always keeping us in their hearts, like guardian angles. I treasured that angle because she reminded me of love. The unconditional kind, that someone up there was watching over me, just as the the prettiest little angle watched from her perch on our Christmas tree. I still remember the Christmas she fell and broke. My mom was especially sad because she said the angle had been around since my parents first Christmases together. I think she searched long and hard for a replacement but was never quite satisfied with any that she found. So in my teenage years our tree topper switched to a star. I liked the mean of the star, signifying Christs birth but it just never seemed to fill the space in my heart were the prettiest little angle had been.

When Blake and I got married I searched every Christmas for the perfect little angle. I found large ones and medium sized ones. Ones with white, red and golden hair, big elegant dresses and giant feathery wings but nothing seemed just right.

As this Christmas rolled around I was feeling kind of discouraged about the angle and even more so because this year we bought our very first standard sized artificial Christmas tree and we had NO angle for the top. So with a new determination I scoured the Internet and specialty shops until one Saturday I stumbled upon a website talking about retired lladro pieces and there she was, small delicate features, simple elegant clothes and the tiniest little wings...PERFECT!

I love Christmas, the decorations the memories and of coarse the spirit of it all. My mom says she's far to breakable to put atop a tree but Blake's been working on a special contraption to keep her nice and snug. I guess only time will tell maybe some day she'll fall and smash into a thousand piece But I'd much rather like to think that someday my little girls will look up at her in wonder and feel that heavenly love that I felt as a small child. Until then I'll cherish all the wonderful memories and the space in my heart that's been filled by the prettiest little angle.

Merry Christmas,