Home Sweet Home?

Today, T. and I actually saw a house that we could get excited about. It's in Seattle's Leschi neighborhood, sort of up in the trees. The location reminds me of the communities on the central California coast outside of Santa Cruz. A giant fir rises above the house, its branches a lavish canopy. The top floor looks onto the lower branches, which seem to comprise a world of their own. Lake Washington idles gently in the near distance. The house has room for and space for the kids when they're visiting. On the other hand, it's not too big. One thing that comes with middle age is a great desire to downsize and discard the detritus of years of acquisition. And there's a lot of detritus.

I think of all the Christmas gifts I got for L. through the years. She most treasured a small tree ornament from the Armadillo Christmas Bazaar. A ceramic Santa emerged from a ceramic chimney toting a ceramic toy laden sack. A pair of ceramic stockings dangled from a ceramic mantel. The stockings detached and doubled as earrings. One holiday season, she misplaced the earrings in the party shuffle. She searched until she found a pair to serve as a replacement, a pair that even attaches to the ornament. All those, I'm keeping.