O Christmas Tree

We decorated our Christmas tree tonight. Quinn was quite into it. While we were putting up lights, he had a separate string of lights that he carried around and eventually put on a branch in a pile. I took it off, but then thought "why'd I do that?". However I couldn't get it back on the branch he had put it because it was too heavy, so then it had to come off. He carried around some ornaments. We tried to pick sturdy ones but one of them bit the dust, prompting a dustbuster cleanup. We've got so many we could actually stand some attrition... Anyway, after that it was about the dustbuster, but he still put some ornaments up while toting the vacuum in his wake.

I forced our cat Tulsa out of her self-imposed basement exile to be part of the family for once. She immediately hid under the tree. Quinn was very excited to see her, but he contained himself very well. He crawled under the tree and offered her his car-ornament, a candy cane and a wooden car - all earnest efforts from our young son. He even ventured some gentle pats, saying so in the process. She didn't run away at least. Is that progress? Hard to tell. We really wish he could have a family pet. Oh well, for a moment today she was part of the family.

I really love a real tree. We got a nice full dense one. We have lots of nice ornaments, and many meaningful ones. It smells nice. It's just...Genuine. This day and age of environmental awareness makes me appreciate the luxury of it. It is a former living thing that adds meaning to our lives; its tenure as a tree was abbreviated; its meaningful stint is rather brief in the big picture; upon which it will be returned to the earth for renewal. Lots of symbolism in that, especially this time of year.

I'll love it every day. Thanks, O Christmas tree.