Christmas Tree

Every year I dread putting up the Christmas tree. Mike usually helps a little, but the bulk of the work  falls on me.
I often say an artificial tree saved our marriage. It seemed the stress of picking out the mutually agreed upon perfect tree was too much for us.
We are now on our fourth artificial tree. I thought the first one would last a lifetime, but it seems each year they add new features to artificial trees. The last two are pre-lighted. When we moved into this home with a 12 foot ceiling in the great room, our seven foot tree looked little and scrawny. I bought a nine foot tree. For three years the lights were perfect. Then last year a third of the lights quit working. I didn't have the fortitude to try to go through all of them to find the faulty lights. That tree remained in the box.
I dragged the seven foot tree upstairs.
I took much longer than I had planned to decorate the tree. Our decorations are nostalgic. So many were gifts from people since passed or marriages failed. Handmade decorations from my first years, when I had no money to buy fancy ones. A collection of key chains from of our travels. Ornaments that hung on my mother's tree. Each a memory in itself.
I find I dally as I hang each ornament thinking of the people who contributed some decoration. I think of the happy times and sad times in my life.
Now it is almost time to take the tree down for another year. I dread this job more than I dread putting it up. But I know some part of me will enjoy gently packing away these treasures of memories until next December when I begin to silently argue with myself on whether I should put up the Christmas tree or not.