I normally dread the weekend after thanksgiving, and this year was no different. It usually means a weekend full of pulling out decorations and hanging Christmas lights. I know that sounds all well and good, but hanging lights to me has become three or four hours of moving ladders and hoping I don’t rip the gutters off the house. Thank God I have a son who has no fear and gets up on the roof. Otherwise, we’re looking at a few lights around the front door and I call it good.
Today was bringing up the tree, boxes upon boxes of nutcrackers, a very old nativity scene, and anything that survived last year’s speed packing on the weekend after New Years (another weekend I tend to dread). I’ll also mention that my beautiful wife did all the work this year while I focused on making dinner. One thing that made today a little less painful was that we finally got snow. It’s been somewhere around five years since we’ve seen measurable snow, and apparently, there’s more coming. School is already called off, but my adulting career forges on. No snow days for this cat.
As a kid, I lived for this moment. I drove my folks nuts with wanting to go pull down the big box of Christmas stuff. My job was to sort the limbs of the 1960’s fake tree by the color of paint splotch on the end of each piece. Once done, Mom took over. No lights for fear of catching fire, but all the garland, silver and blue bulb ornaments, and all the tinsel you could stand, painstakingly placed by my Mom. I think my Dad dreaded that day as bad as I do now.
But through all the dread and complaining, I have to say the house looks festive. Fireplace is going, lights on the mantle highlighting the nutcracker invasion, and the tree full of ornaments ranging from our childhood through last year.
I have to say, my house feels like a winter wonderland tonight. The thing that the great Christmas songs are written about (none of that Mariah Carrey crap). I’m thinking more Ray Conniff and Perry Como, what I grew up with. I count my blessings.
Random Thoughts of an Ordinary Average Guy 