The dark days are here.  It doesn’t get light until 6:00 am the sun goes down at 4:15 pm.  The beautiful snow we had has now mostly melted and what remains is dirt encrusted frozen chunks left from the plow.   Christmas decor is popping up all over town though, and the lights and color are most welcome.  I have some of my decorating done, but the real tree will be done next week.  Last week I put up my sparkle tree.  I got the idea from my sisters who live in northern Vermont.  They bring in a big branch, cover it in lights and suspend it from the ceiling.   Then they hang crystal, glass, white , gold, and silver ornaments on it. The whole room just glows.

I have a lot of those ornaments that I used to put on my fresh tree but now I put them on my sparkle tree.  My branch is upright  – usually in an old sap bucket – this year I couldn’t find it  – must have stashed it away somewhere and so I used a wooden wastebasket as a base.  The branch goes in the base – I fill it with rocks, small hand weights, gravel and make sure its real sturdy.  Then I wrap strings of tiny lights all over the branches, hang the glass icicles, vintage ornaments, crocheted snowflakes, etc. and plug it in.  The darkness disappears.. Let there be light.