I had a meltdown our first Christmas without StE, always my partner in crime making Christmas, birthdays, etc. special for everybody else. I had to browbeat people to help me decorate. We'd given both kids since birth, their eventual SOs, and their kids since birth an ornament every year. I had lists of what ornament and which date for everybody, and a master list of all the lists for me (so as not to duplicate, etc.) Working alone because nobody cared about the tree, and bereft and furious, I pulled ornaments off the tree by the handful and flung them into whatever open container was close, just so we could get the naked carcass to the curb. We were moving, so I pulled a handful of ones handmade by StE, H, and me and brought them with. Everything else stayed behind, with their memories.
I ran across a boxed dozen 50s blown glass ornaments at a flea market here, and searched for old, mismatched glass ornaments on ebay, and our new tree is beautiful. It's not all shiny new, the ornaments have some obvious age, and probably history, but I don't feel the weight of their history. And to us, it is beautiful, and not heart-hurty.
Aurelia, that soup has an amazing amount of beta carotene! And is seasonally festive!