Week is over

 It was a hard week.

I did wind up grading an exam for another (upper division) class, and half the class earned either an A or a B, and perhaps another quarter more earned solid Cs, so I guess maybe it's not me. But still, this week has been A LOT. In a minute I'm going to go take a warm bath and then go to bed and NOT SET MY ALARM FOR TOMORROW MORNING.

The big thing I did this evening after getting home was to haul out the ornaments and put them on the tree

I do multicolor lights; that's what we always had when I was growing up. The ones we had were the old C7 incandescent bulbs; these are little LED lights, which use less energy and don't get hot (it's an artificial tree, anyway).

I have lots of ornaments. I tend to be a maximalist. Some of these are old - I've had them the whole time I lived here, so more than 20 years; they stretch back to when I had a tiny little (3' tall) artificial tree that I bought for the apartment and then kept once I moved here - a few years ago (2017, maybe) I decided I had the money and the space, so why not get a big tree? 

I also have ornaments I got last year, and at least one (the Powder My Little Pony reproduction) that I bought this year. Most of the ornaments are "nontraditional" in the sense that they are a cartoon character or an animal (I have a felt hammerhead shark, for example)

I admit I was taken aback a bit when I pulled out a cardinal ornament I had (not sure if it made it into any of the pictures below) when I realized that it was one my friend Jo (who died in March) had given me for Christmas one year. That's one of the things about Christmas: you do have those sudden realizations of those who are no longer with us. (I suppose it's a season that starts with All Souls' Day). 

Also thinking about that strange Christmas last year, when there was nowhere to go (I guess church was back in session, but that was about it - campus had gone all virtual at Thanksgiving, and cases were up so I wasn't going anywhere, and wow....I'm glad I managed to weather all that but I'd not like to have to again. Doing Christmas here alone would be more tolerable if it was possible to go places.)

Anyway. Now the season begins again, and yes, I know, it's not even Advent, and some people tell me that Serious Christians don't put the tree up until Christmas Eve, but....I can kind of compartmentalize the more secular part of the celebration - having bright, shiny, nice, colorful, and glittery things in a dark and tired time of year - from the more sacred one, where we are celebrating one of the big feasts of the year. (And yes, there were times when Christmas wasn't celebrated much; Easter of course being the big holy day, and perhaps Pentecost also being important, but Christmas seen as less). But by this time of year I am tired and worn and I need those memories of happy times of childhood and the silly bright fun things to help me keep going.