Maybe, it is because of 2020. Maybe, it is because of my age. For whatever reason, I find myself staring at our Christmas tree every night for about 30 minutes before I go to bed.
I look at the ornaments. There are ornaments made by my grandmother, my mother, and my kids.
There are ornaments from places we have visited.
There are ornaments made on Shutterfly from visits to Santa.
There are ridiculously expensive ornaments from the Christkindl Market in Chicago that I yelled at myself for buying, but now I very much appreciate the craftsmanship.
There is the ornament that I bought from Bronner’s as a memorial to my mom.
There are Sigma Chi ornaments that we have been collecting since 1997.
There are several “our first Christmas” ornaments.
And, there is the duck face ornament that Andy hates, yet the kids and I hide every year on the tree because we giggle so much as we hang it.
While we still have a few of the collectible Hallmark ornaments on our Christmas tree this year, I mostly chose “those ornaments.” The ones that make you think back. The ones that are full of memories. The ones that mean something. I have told the kids for years that when they have their own homes, they can take “their” ornaments. Someday, many of these will be gone, so I will enjoy them now. Maybe, that is why I find myself staring each night.