Yesterday was the day of Angels in our lives and it was my son's third Christmas.

In his short three years, we have lost my grandfather, "Opa Ted," and our very loyal Shetland Sheepdog named Duchess.

We consider them as having moved on to another place and that they are now our guardian Angels.

We had no doubt that our Angels were with us on this Christmas.

Before putting my son to bed, we once again took in the beauty of our live and majestic eight foot Grand Noble tree - each ornament holding special memories of years past.

It was topped with an Angel given as a wedding present twelve years before.

It is a pretty lighted Angel and she has sat on top and protected all of our trees for 13 years.

After tucking in my own little cherub, I came downstairs, and noticed the tree was tilting, but before I could reach it, it came crashing to the ground.

My first reaction was anger and disappointment.

Ornaments appeared broken and water was emptying all over the carpet.

The first words out of my mouth, did not rhyme with Angel....

Little did I know, the words should have been, "Thank you, my dear Guardian Angels."

Many of the ornaments were made of extremely fragile Belleek and were expensive.

To my surprise only one ornament broke.

As I reached to replace the treetop angel, I noticed that the first five inches of the top of the tree was brown and charred.

Apparently the wiring to the light was faulty and had begun to burn our tree.

When my son came down to find out what had happened, he simply and matter-of-factly said, "I think Opa Ted and Duchess knocked it down."

We would not have noticed that our tree was burning until it was too late.