There’s a holy peace and tranquility on Sunday mornings at 4:30 a.m. before the flurry of activity needed to pull off Sunday school and corporate worship. I enjoy it immensely. Above is the classic tree in our family room. We have another one in the living room, covered in random ornaments that were made and collected over the years. They tell more of the family story.

Then there’s the aluminum tree made in the 1960s that I inherited from my parents. That one is located in our primary bedroom. It could survive a nuclear blast. Samuel and Levi call it “the round-and-round tree” because it has a gold base that rotates it clockwise, along with a color wheel that throws light on it. Gaudy though it is, they love it, as do I. That tree is the family story, at least on my side. I grew up with it, so it has a kind of magic to me.

Since the boys love trains, I added an N-gauge train around the base this year. I may have to do a brief video of the aluminum tree, as I never shared pictures of our renovated “granny flat” from after my mother-in-law passed away almost two years ago. But duty calls, so, more later.