A Christmas ornament

Among the items that go onto our Christmas tree every year is this glass boat. It looks a bit dilapidated, but it came from my husband’s parents and as such is a cherished part our tree. It measures about four inches long. The hull is a golden brown color, and the stays are very thin crinkly wire.

The interesting part to me is that my father-in-law  was an atheist (his father’s family was Lutheran, and his mother’s was Jewish), and my mother-in-law was Jewish. And yet, they had a Christmas tree. To blend in with the neighbors? To not make their kids feel different? Every year I take out the boat, and hang it on my tree, and think about what loving people they were, and how I and my kids were so lucky to have known them. But how you can’t really know anybody.