The Best Little Christmas Tree in the World

I may have been more excited to go to college if I knew that my parents would pepper my campus mailbox with packages. And I may have been more excited to graduate college if I knew I would still be receiving care packages from my parents when I was no longer a college student.

You must also know that these are not just any packages. My parents could win awards for the care packages they send. I am not just saying this in order to keep them accountable for the high standard they have already set for themselves.

I write about this today to share about the greatest care package I ever received. It is not one that included beer money or Crayola crayons. It is also not the one that included Salt Water Taffy's from Shrivers or Tastykakes. 

The best care package in the world came my freshman year of college. Prior to making our way to the Commons for lunch, I stopped by the mailroom with my BFF. As I opened my mailbox I noticed the small piece of paper that meant I had a package waiting for me. As I turned in the ticket to receive my box, which I half remember being a Girl Scout cookie box case, I saw that this package came from my parents. In true Sandy form, I ripped open the box, pulled out the sheets of newspaper and begin searching for what was inside.

Inside I first discovered a box of glass Christmas balls, only to be followed by a small green Christmas tree. My dad had even put the lights on the tree prior to mailing it. As a child my dad would cover the four foot tree in my bedroom with lights before I would cover it with ornaments.

This small green tree soon found a place in my dorm room in Marion Hall. In the years to come it had a place in the Alpha Sigma Alpha house, 911 (off-campus house), my apartment in Fergus Falls, and now my aging apartment in Saint Paul.

For some reason this tree is my favorite, even though I have an almost eight-foot tree in my living room that is covered with Dr. Seuss ornaments. The original lights have died and many of the glass balls have shattered through moves, but this Christmas tree is still special, unique and gives me a glimpse that soon I will be back in Philadelphia preparing for another Troyan family Christmas.