Hi Michael,
Seeing the thread so quiet is a really positive thing, don't you think? It says that we are all living in our 3D worlds, spending time with our families and friends. I'm actually hiding right now, taking a break from the joyous family festivities.
We spent this weekend after our return from New Hampshire decorating the house and getting the tree up. Last year I did it all myself and I was determined not to make that a tradition, so I cleverly invited CW's girlfriend over to participate in the family rituals, and I bought a LOT of eggnog to bribe Ammo with, and I baked bread and made minestrone and hot curried fruit to keep Dan around and it almost worked. Yesterday, Ammo and I did the outside--60 feet of garland with white lights entwined, spread out on the front lawn. I plugged them in and I swear they all worked. We carefully looped them around our front porch and tied big red ribbons at each loop, plugged them in and a strand in the middle was dead. Why does that happen? I crawled out on the porch roofs and hung the wreaths on all the windows and wrapped the Victorian light like a candy cane. Immediately a gale force wind arose and the wreaths have already blown off the upstairs windows. Why does that happen? Then we all went and bought the tree. We are very fast at tree-picking; we buy the first one we see that has no big holes in it and only one trunk. One year I bought a tree that had two trunks-I swear. We didn't know which one to put in the stand. The tree looked pretty normal when I bought it; I have a theory that Christmas trees are bred to mutate during their trip to your house. This tree yesterday looked pretty normal,too, but it grew on the way home. It's now enormous and has aggressively preempted most of the living room floor. I'm a little concerned about tonight as it's right under our bedroom.
But anyway, everyone was here, drinking the eggnog and eating. And watching me decorate the tree.
When I complained, Ammo said he was studying my technique in order to prepare himself for adulthood and responsible future tree ownership. Then CW tried hanging the crystal icicles by throwing them like darts from his chair. Then they set up a battle with the nutcrackers and the figures from some of the creche collections, using the wooden Baby Jesus as a cannonball. Then Dan pointed out, rather unnecessarily, I thought, that the decorations only went to the 6 foot mark on a 10 ft tree. And I pointed out nicely that the upper third of the tree was always his assignment if he'd stop playing with the Russian doll collection and be a man. CW made fun of Ammo's kindergarten ornament, and Ammo said his feelings were hurt and he was going outside to shoot some baskets and recover. Dan had to go to the office, Nicole had to go do her own family things. I looked around and there we were, Blue and I, decorating the Christmas tree, surrounded by empty eggnog mugs and the final movement of the Nutcracker Suite.
So I thought, huh. And came in here, leaving Blue to finish up.
All in all, it was a very successful endeavor. |
