So this is Christmas

And what have I done?

Photo by Michel Stockman on Unsplash

It’s Christmas 2020, in the year of the pandemic. These last ten months have been in turn odd, scary, and monotonous. But I’m one of the lucky ones. I have a job I can do online, from home, and I have to admit, this has been the most peaceful Christmas of my life.

First, with the pandemic, there is less to do. My three-hour round-trip commute has become a thing of the past. Add to that no holiday work dinners, happy hours, ugly sweater contests, open houses, festivals, caroling, or events, and you have what adds up to a quiet and… yes… peaceful Christmas.

We got our tree up early, the weekend after Thanksgiving — a first, and a tradition I will keep. I love the tree. I love decorating it. I love the plethora of ancient ornaments that were passed down to me by my family and crazy old Beth, my sister’s German godmother. From her, I received boxes of pink and silver balls, green and white bells sprinkled with gold stars, and strings of cranberry-red glass beads with which to drape the tree.

I always buy a Silvertip, which was my mother’s favorite. I love how you can see the elegant trunk between the branches, and I love that the ornaments can hang freely and don’t lean weirdly against the outside of the tree. I love that I can hang them both in near the trunk and out near the tips. I love the…