It’s been a stressful year with mom’s health challenges, feeling overwhelmed with work, job changes, and Hannah moving home (exciting things on that front coming), to name a few. I’ve felt less spunky, less resilient than normal. For the first time in, well, forever, I haven’t been excited about our annual hunt across the property for a home-grown Christmas tree. It felt like a chore, but I remained silent because it’s tradition – part of Hannah’s childhood. Even when she was away at college, choosing and setting up the tree, waiting until she arrived home, even if it was just days before Christmas.

I had been eyeing artificial Christmas trees. The allure of not having to rig up some engineering marvel of a convoluted stand for a pencil-thin “free-range” tree trunk. Not worrying about fire, being able to keep the tree inside and enjoy it for longer. Ever the careful safety watch guard, Paul is ready for the tree to come down the day after Christmas. Then, a couple of weeks ago, Hannah, busy with work and volunteering, said, “Mom, I’m just not feeling the Christmas tree hunt this year.” My heart did a little dance, and we sat down to study Christmas trees on the interweb in search of something “natural” similar to what we are used to. Before the end of the night, we’d ordered a tree.

The arrival of the said tree is now a week late, putting a damper on my holiday mojo.  So yesterday, I pulled out a miniature tree, loaded it with Christmas lights, and set it up on the trunk in the living room. The joy of Christmas comes from within, but I needed a little boost this year. It’s beginning to look a bit like Christmas.

The placement of my Joyful Owl Wreath (pattern here) on the wall got me thinking. I’d been looking for a new tree topper for this new tree but hadn’t found anything that resonated. I spent yesterday redesigning my Joyful Owl – who usually peeks out from a wreath into a tree topper. Full-bodied, this owl is threaded onto a wood skewer, and the skewer is attached to the tree trunk with tiny little hair clips. Before her debut on my new tree, I may paint the skewer green to match the color of the tree. Here’s the pattern in the event you need some Joy on the top of your tree as well.