December 5

Some people are dedicated, focused seasonal decorators who pull out the carefully-labeled boxes and hang the pictures and deck the halls all with one well-planned fell swoop.

We are not those people.

The trees --we have two: one real, and one artificial that sits in the big window in my Pretty Room-- were up as of the day after Thanksgiving, but we didn't actually do any decorating until this evening. 

But decorate we did. The Pretty Room is now prettied, my beloved peg tree is up in the dining room, and the branches of the real tree are are fully adorned with a wide array of ornaments that includes everything from Hallmark penguins to macaroni framed photos of chubby-cheeked preschoolers. (Our kids, of course. No visages of random children appear on the tree this year.)

It's beautiful in every bit of its unique, busy-branched glory. And I am grateful for each point of light.