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december's here and so is the tree

12.02.2012

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on the last day of november, my dad walked through the back door carrying a bushy pine. the branches filled up the space between his arms and chest, the sweet scent of the tree harbored in. and there it set, tall and waiting. my sister and my littlest brother and i put our midmorning to good use with dressing up the bare branches. we hauled five lights-from-last-year-filled grocery bags onto the coffee table and begun to unwind the strands. tangled christmas lights can either make you or break you. disembroling the strings adorned with tiny glass cylinders is either a chore that has the possiblity of driving you mad, or you can think of it rather like a puzzle to solve. your prize? a pretty lit fraiser. we took our turns rounding the tree, holding messes of lights. i mostly took pictures. taking breaks to taste sprinkled sugar cookies and sip on ice water and read a few pages of the nutcracker book. the bottoms of our socked feet gradually collected fallen pine needles, as did the window sill adjacent to the tree, and most of the living room floor. though the ornaments didn't make their appearance that day, it was good to see the hundreds of tiny lights that evening. when dark was all around, the gentle glow of the christmas tree put a warmth in our home that only this time of year can bring.

happy december, friends xx

9 comments:

  1. Oh, I love this part about Christmas. And it's ten times when you have a real tree. :)

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  2. I really love this, Madison. It gives me a new perspective on photography. Every photo is unique and really captures a piece of your day. Don't you love this time of year?
    xoxo

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  3. Yes, decorating the tree is one of my favorite parts of Christmas. We did ours last night and it's so homemade and original and I just love it. xx

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  4. lovelovelove these images and the story they tell. beautiful, madison. we just got our tree and decorate it soon. I can't wait. :)

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  5. beautiful story, madison. decorating the tree is one of my favorites, too. :)

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  6. beautiful. thank you.

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  7. this is what i love about your blog:
    the photos aren't always perfectly clear, but that's okay, because photos don't have to be clear to be pretty. and in this way, it shows the cycle of your life; it never stops, it never slows down, and you don't attempt to make it still with your photographs. you preserve it in all its glory and splendor and memories, and i can especially identify because that's what my life is like as well. in addition to your photos, you put words with them, a story that we'd all be left to imagine if we didn't see the full post. and i love how you just write it all down in one giant paragraph so we can see the whole picture. and life is a big picture. life is like a camera. it's full-frame, but most of us only see it with a cropped sensor. i'm glad you're a full frame girl.
    i admit that this year, decorating the tree wasn't as hyped up on my part as it usually is, but we had all of the grandparents here when we did it, so that was an extra special treat.
    happy december, dear. :)

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  8. These are so beautiful! What pretty photographs. You are brilliant! And amazing!!!
    Britney
    http://lemonwoodandhoney.blogspot.com

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  9. I love the gentle approach of memory catching and beauty making you take with your camera.

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your comments make my day. really.

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