Mission Accomplished

Look closely in this picture. Do you see it? All we did was plug it in and there is was - the glow. Isn't it pretty?


Today was one of those weird Georgia weather kind of days. I took Max for a run in the morning in shorts. The skies were threatening rain and the wind was blowing but it was a warm 70 degrees.
By noon it was raining and the temperatures were dropping fast. Forty degrees later, we had the perfect tree decorating kind of night.


We put the Christmas channel on the TV, made some hot chocolate and popped some cookies in the oven.



As we all opened our individual boxes of ornaments and began the decision-making process of which one looks best where, Nelson turned to me and said, "Do you think anyone else has a tree like this?"
What he meant is that our tree is a visual history of our family. Each Epiphany I give everyone a new ornament. More times that not, the ornament represents a significant moment of the year. Nelson has a handy man I gave him when we started building the house. Mackenzie has a ballerina for the year she took her first dance lessons. Aiden has a basketball for the year he got his first basketball goal. Dawson has a gigantic three-dimensional star he made last year in Kindergarten. And, Max, well his story has just begun so his current favorite is the Superman ornament he got last year.


So really it's not the glow of the lights that calls to me. It's us. Staring at the tree reminds me of the places we've visited, the hobbies we love, and the effort that goes into each handmade (regardless of their enormous size) ornament.
It's a picture of our loves, talents, and silliness. The love I have for this beautiful, silly, talented family of mine explains the love I have for the tree that symbolizes it all. And that, lights on or off, is what makes that tree glow.