Tree Side Sighs

We packed our luggage on New Year's Eve day and headed to Fredericksburg, VA. We just arrived home today from several days with Carina and her family. Up the long staircase I trudged with heavily laden arms, back to my world.

And our lighted Christmas tree greeted me. Window bays and tabletops still cheerily displayed familiar but out of time holiday decor. A bit of a time warp. Christmas was all put away and the New Year already welcomed in Fredericksburg but not here at 105 Main.

Bags were soon emptied. I intended to nap (it was a very early departure this morning.) But somehow I instead found myself obediently acknowledging the calendar. I began gathering decor for storage. Manger scenes, wreaths, snowmen and candles all were garnered on the dining room table for wrapping and boxing, evergreen boughs and holly stems tossed away. One trip, one handful at a time.

Until now. Now I sit next to the brightly lit tree, still soft and pliable and boasting treasured ornaments, glowing and filling the corner with colored light.

Sigh. Let me sit here. Let me enjoy this delight one more time. Have I even done this yet? Even once during December? I'm not sure that I did. Sigh.

Rick is resting. Merrick is at work. So I sit in the semi-silence of semi-darkness. Outside my windows, cars shuttle past on the way home from work as dusk falls.

But that is out there. Here, here by my tree I sit and sigh and stare.

You know what I'm learning?

Year by year I get a bit more reticent to let this season pass. There is never enough. It feels like I could use an eternity of days to just celebrate His goodness.

Sigh. What a good good, good good plan that is.