Christmas ornaments

They were all there waiting for me when I returned.

A lifetime of glue and craft-store artifacts balancing on artificial tree limbs: the golden wreath constructed of painted macaroni pieces; the photo of Mandy, AKA, "The Greatest Dog Ever" that portrays her as just another canine; the beady-eyed Rudolph felt ornament that I had made in Cub Scouts, gluing said eye to my finger with a hot glue gun while under my mother's watch.

They don't go away.