Christmas Starts

We put up the Christmas tree and decorations. We gave up on live trees a couple years ago, so putting up the tree, now, means getting the big, heavy box out of the storage barn, lugging it into the house, taking the four unwieldy sections out of the box, assembling them, spreading out the limbs that were smushed together when packed into the box, and plugging everything in. It’s really only a little easier than setting up a real tree. With the lights already woven into the limbs of the fake tree, I don’t have to string the lights myself.

I then got the boxes and boxes and boxes of Christmas decorations down out of the attic. Each box is as wide as the attic doorway, and heavy, so negotiating them all down the ladder is about as easy as throwing a cinder block into the air and catching it. About as safe, too.

In case my feelings don’t come across well in this text, I’ll state directly: I just don’t much care for doing the decorations for Christmas. I like having the decorations out for the holiday (but just for the month of December), but I don’t like the activity of putting them up. I guess the reason is that I end up being the one who does all the more nerve-wracking stuff instead of the easy, simple placements. I put up the tree, string lights outside, etc. It’s like being the one who always has to wash dishes after a big family meal.

Cowgrit loves Christmas decorations, God bless her. If not for her, our house probably wouldn’t look any different in December than it does in July. And our house in December leaves no doubt as to what the holiday is. Anyway, we got the house all jollied up and yuletide fine. Our home is holiday pretty, despite my grumbling about the process.

Afterward, we did my favorite thing: dinner. We went to On the Border for some Tex-Mex food. Yeah, if anything can completely confuse the holiday feel, it’s me and my taste buds.

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com