How would I watercolor that tree, I wondered, gazing at our Christmas tree in the corner of the room, its branches filled with bright C7 bulbs, multi-colored mini-lights with white minis mixed in, and ornaments, round, spherical, fragile glass, metals and plastic, some sleek and gleaming, some sparkling with coils of golden wire and textured snowflake glitter. I supposed I’d have to start with a pencil drawing, tricky since I have had very limited experience with drawing trees. I have only drawn one. Well, actually, it was a tree part. Okay, it was the last two inches of a branch that I used as a perch for a bird that was the actual point of the whole thing. A birthday bird, a house finch, with a birthday balloon tied by a string, held in its beak. I had already used "A little bird told me it was your birthday," so I went with "Happy Bird-Day to you!" It was not my best selling birthday card. Anyway, with the lights and the spaces between branches and the ornaments, I would have to use generous amounts of white space in order to keep it from looking muddied. I'm not good at white space. It's hard for me to leave it alone, like a pause in a conversation, but I knew it would provide an outline, or, since it was Christmas, a halo for the different shapes, giving them their own definition. I stifled a yawn. I hadn't been able to sleep after so robust and busy a Christmas Day, but now I was tired. Warm and drowsy on the couch with the fuzzy, green throw over my lap, sitting alone with my computer, studying the tree and enjoying the Christmas lights. Sleep would come easily now, so I got up, turned off the lights and went back to bed, realizing that my path was lit with moonlight that glowed through the window and stretched softly across the floor.