In Defense of the November Tree
We put our Christmas decorations up in the sweltering sun last weekend. Before the Halloween candy could even be properly sorted, we'd hauled down the boxes of lights and decor and quibbled over how many trees one person could possibly need. We needed some happy. Don't we all need some happy from 2020? Covid, division, fear, uncertainty, anxiety, death. Weird junk. 2020 hasn't met anyone's expectations. I like to theme out the Christmas decor in different areas of my house. Some brightly colored pastels here, a grouping of buffalo check wintry items there. But my tree is a constant reminder of the hodge-podge. The tree is covered with mismatched random ornaments collected over the years. The ones my great aunt gave me to help me "set up" my own tree as an adult. The ones my grandmother made for me, brought me back from Europe, and bought me based on whatever I was interested in at the time as a child. The ornaments bought as souvenirs from all of the trip...