Fairy Tale

Once upon a time there was a girl who liked everything pretty and sparkly and clean.  She liked matching items, themes, and order.  Each year she would decorate her tree with matching ornaments in a coordinated color scheme.  She despised colored lights and Non-classic Christmas songs. She would search the stores for the perfect wrapping paper with pretty bows so that all of her packages were uniform and distinct.  

Then suddenly, in the blink of an eye, that girl disappeared.  Sure, over the years she would cringe as non-matching ornaments were hung on the tree by her spouse, but she found work-arounds.  She created a separate "basement tree" perfect for all of those non-conforming hangings, and jayhawk memorabilia.  

But somehow this year, there was no cringing.  There was no anxiety or sense of dread that overcame her as mismatched by mismatched ornaments were piled onto the tree (and with a 3 and 1 year old "piled" is absolutely the appropriate word.)   Nope, this year, she suddenly saw the beauty in all of those mismatched memories and through tearful eyes suddenly saw that tree for what it really was: a perfect complication of family memories, love, laughter and toddler creativity, a tree that will continue to grow in color, and artwork, with vacations to come and a multitude of tiny and then not-so-tiny handprints.  

(And in national title commemorative decor.) 

Yes.  She really saw it. The most beautiful Christmas tree in the world.  

Happy Christmas!