I bought a Christmas tree last week, and it made me happy; the smell alone was well worth the cost. It's the first tree I've bought while I was living on my own — I never bothered to get one when I was in Clemson. When I got it home, I realized that I now faced another novel task: buying my own ornaments. I suddenly found myself feeling out previously unexamined regions in the world of my likes and dislikes, like the grayed-out unexplored portions of the map in a strategy game. I've never before considered the question, "What kind of Christmas ornaments do I like?" It was never an issue before, of course. In Puerto Rico we just put up my whatever ornaments my parents had accumulated over the years.

I ended up getting mostly ball-type ornaments, because I decided that I didn't really like a tree overloaded with random figurines like drummer boys and angels. But when I got home and put the ornaments on the tree, I realized that it just doesn't look satisfying with nothing but glass balls and garland. So now I know for next year: A Christmas tree needs figurines, just not too many.