This weekend after cutting down our Christmas tree I was surprised to find that my motivation to put it up and decorate it was not to be found. In years past the requests and pestering could be heard from the moment we would get our tree home. "Lets hurry and and put it up", and then "Let's decorate it NOW"! Despite being exhausted from the outing I would bring the boxes upstairs and start to string the lights. When my children were younger they would eagerly await the completion of the lights and with ornaments in hand begin the hasty placement of each one. After admiring the beauty of the tree, including the coveted placing of the star, we would have family prayer and then tuck the children into bed with a quick story. Then ever so quietly I would begin redecorating the tree so that the decorations would be a little more spaced (one ornament on a branch, instead of four on the same spot) just a little more how I thought it should look.This year I had no anxious fingers waiting to place their ornaments, no pleading requests to hurry and put the tree up. I took my time and decorated it the way I wanted it, but it just was not the same. I missed the little hands and even the bigger ones eagerly placing ornaments haphazardly on the tree. It really was kind of lonely. In retrospect I wish I would have left those ornaments of years past just as each was placed. I wish I would not have stressed so much and just taken time to enjoy the moment. All too quickly time has passed and little hands have become big hands who now have their own little ones to care for. Enjoy the journey, and the precious memories you are creating. Time goes so quickly (I now you mothers of two year old's are thinking it can't go fast enough) it can and it does! There is no going back except through the moments and memories that we create.
