The Story Behind The Christmas Tree

[Mistwalker]

The Christmas tree in the opener photo of the Christmas article I did for the website this week, as small as it is, is very special to me. It is the first Christmas tree that Alayna and I have had since the Christmas of 2016, right before the separation happened the first week of January 2017 and the divorce and custody case finally began in earnest after building up to it over the six years prior. Since that time, between dealing with the expenses of the divorce and custody case and battling to please the courts, while also changing my careers around after a company I designed for was bought by another, and doing it with a badly damaged leg with more than just a couple of fractured bones which had reduced my income to essentially nonexistent, there have just been too many struggles in dealing with the bigger issues of our lives like eating, clothing, and keeping the truck on the road to worry about things like a Christmas trees and Christmas presents. There still aren't going to be any presents under it, as I still simply cannot afford that yet. Having repeatedly re-injured my leg just trying to keep working and keep things going, with no real financial help from her mother in the last 3 years, we are still struggling pretty badly. But God has looked after us, things are a little better this year than the last few. There is a tree in our home today, and there are stockings for my two daughters and my grandson that will hopefully have a few little things in them by Christmas morning that will make them smile, and their smiles will be my presents. Just seeing the way Alayna's eyes lit up when she saw it the morning after I set it up, and watching her walk out the drive way to the bus stop backwards, looking at it in the window smiling and talking about how pretty it looked from the road, warmed my heart and brought tears to my eyes. Her happiness that morning brought me more joy than I even know how to express in words. And that's why, of all the really beautifully decorated trees I have worked around in this city this year, this little one is my favorite of them all, and that's how it was chosen for the opener photo in that article.