Keeping the Christmas tree

This may anger or distress some people, but I have to make a quick mention of the fact. You can call yours whatever you like, but in my home we’re going to keep calling it the Christmas Tree, not the “Holiday tree” that unfortunately appears to be sweeping the nation.

At the right is a shot of our Christmas Tree from 2003, when we lived in an apartment so tiny the tree was in our bedroom (and right next to a giant clunkly old dangerous heater, besides).

The picture conjures some fun memories: The TV was given to me by a friend and former roomate from my days in Boston; it lived a long and productive life for several people before finally dying out on my wife and I one day after the Superbowl in 2004.

The dresser it’s on is one I had from age 8, and finally gave up just a few months ago (it wasn’t built for two, to say the least). The ripped part of wood at the base of the dresser arrived there just a few months before this picture was taken- it stems from a gigantic hole in the ceiling of our bedroom. One day, ceiling bits and much water came in, unnannounced, and the room became so damp the wood literally peeled off the dresser. Come to think of it, that may be why the TV failed only two months after!

The couch, a corner of it visible, was one of the most comfortable I ever owned, despite (or perhaps in part?) to it being ragged and faded. Though it was too short to lie down and sleep on, it fit two comfortably. It sat lower to the ground than most, but not low enough to feel seemly. I inherited it from my first roomate in college, who got it himself when he and I took a trip around our college town scanning for couches and found that one on the lawn of a bed and breakfast, being offered for free. We snapped it up and immediately installed it our room, innocculating ourselves from tempting common-area couch raids.

The couch, the dresser, and the TV are all long gone, but even though they evoke fond memories, they’re all just things, so it’s okay.

The Christmas tree is just a thing, but it might be a bit more. Either way, in our home it’s sticking around for a while longer.

UPDATE: Yesterday, we went to cut down our tree from an ecologically-responsible Christmas tree farm near us. The photoset is here. We’re planning to decorate it today- pictures in a new post later on.

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