The first time

As one grows older perhaps we focus more and more on Christmases past. For myself Christmas offers the opportunity to visit the old stomping grounds.
While nothing to do with holidays each year I notice how the urban tree canopy continues to thin gone are many of the populus, birch and even silver maples. Some trees remain and with the passage of time have grown larger. This specimen of Aesculus hippocastinaum rep rents the first time I ever saw this tree probably way back at the end of elementary school. The holidays are a time to remember the magic of seeing something for the first time