Anticipated, Celebrated, Decorated

This may be my favorite photo from the few I took yesterday afternoon

on the Holiday Tour of Homes.

This is an annual event that has become a tradition for us.

Reflecting recently on why the Christmas season is 

so anticipated, celebrated and decorated
(and trying to understand my ambivalence about it all)

I wrote this:

Christmas calls out the most beautiful, tender, kind and caring parts of us, I think.
We reflect; we celebrate; we treasure.
We are warmed by the soft lights and special ornaments that carry with them a host of memories.
Our emotions are heavy with them.
They range from inexpressible joy to agonizing pain.
Our decorations are their "spill-over".
We bask in the results of our efforts to express our tangled selves. 
Blessed are those who move through tangled selves, bloated schedules and trappings of the season
to abandon them if necessary to embrace the Person and Presence of the One 
for whom the holiday is named.  
(rlg, 12/6/2015)