Yule Tree and Memories

When we first put up the tree, I had every intention of decking it out in white lights, much the same as our artificial tree. What I hadn't taken into consideration however, was the fact that this tree is easily twice as round and full as our fake one. We made it about a 3rd of the way before we ran out and needed to go out for more lights. Despite our trying four or five stores, we couldn't find a single strand of white lights and so, we switched to colored. Not really a big deal, it's been years since I've had a tree with colored lights; both Joe and I grew up with trees decked out as such.

So he strung the lights and I broke out the boxes of ornaments, carefully unpacking the familiar baubles and trinkets. We put on some Christmas music, poured some wine and hung all of our ornaments. We had a great time of it, bobbing around the tree and past each other to find the perfect branch for each treasure. When we finished we sat back to admire our work and I burst into tears. Last year, I talked a bit about my issues with the holiday season in this post; apparently I still have a few unresolved feelings and issues that came to a head after what was otherwise a beautiful evening.

You see, it's not that the tree is ugly or offensive (although white lights tend to make photography a bit easier!), it's the fact that this tree reminded me so very, very much of all of the trees I had growing up. It stirred the pot of memories, both good and bad, and drudged up all sorts of feelings that I just let out. Luckily, this bought of Christmas blues was short lived and I felt worlds better in just an hour or so. Now, I can sit back and just enjoy the tree.

Here's a peek at some of our tree's treasures: