Simple Christmas
Less than two weeks before Christmas, we finally put up a tree.
Normally, we'd spend the weekend after Thanksgiving going all out. By "we," I mean dad would drag everything up from the basement and put the tree and lights up; I'd unbox everything and decorate the trees, plural. We have the full-size tree that's 6' or 7' tall; we have mom's pink princess tree that she got while in the throes of Shabby Chic-ing the living room; and after Papa died five years ago, we acquired his 3' tabletop tree.
It's that final tree, Papa's, that we ended up displaying this year. Given that dad was sick Thanksgiving weekend, and I've been sick ever since, neither of us had the strength or the motivation to do anything until this point. Dad had started bringing up some of the smaller bins earlier in the week, but I pretty much went, bah humbug. I'm just not feeling it this year. And it's not like anyone's coming over, like grandma has the past year or two. She's even been spending the night and opening gifts with us in the morning, which has been pretty fun, to be honest. That she's unable to join us at all, it's such a bummer.
I hadn't even planned on putting up anything today. I'd come downstairs for something unrelated and discovered dad had brought up two more items from the basement. The four medium-sized totes were already up; he added a box of lights and the box for Papa's tree. All of a sudden, I found myself unboxing it while mom cleared off the mirror-top table. That came from grandma, and it had been in the family room for years, holding our TV when the entertainment center wasn't the correct size for it. Now, the table is in the corner of the living room, next to the couch, on the edge of the dining room--precisely where I've been putting Papa's tree most years since we got it. I'd been thinking we'd just put the tree atop it, and since it's mirrored, we didn't necessarily need to put a tree skirt under it. Good, because while one tote I went into claimed there were two tree skirts inside, I didn't find them with a cursory search. I didn't check inside any bags or anything, though; I simply didn't care to.
Mom was funny. She was thinking Papa's tree was like the big tree and would take a lot to put together. I was on the other side of the room while she cleaned off the table, and she's going, don't put it together over there and drag it over! Like...how big do you think this tree is? Do you honestly not remember it from year to year? All you have to do is pop in the three base pieces, unfold the top branch, and fluff the rest of the branches, and tada! Instant tree.
Papa's tree came with a box of white lights, so I put those on; it seemed a little bare. Mom didn't want dad to get the other light box and wondered, what lights do we have in here? There were several boxes dad picked up years ago, where he took multicolored strands and combined the colors for one red, one green, to put on an outdoor wreath. And, inexplicably, there were four boxes of purple. They're not truly purple, which disappointed my dad. I think he wanted them for Halloween purposes, maybe? Mom wanted to see them, so I plugged in one set, and she went, it's pink! Use that one! To my eyes, it almost looks red on the tree, which is Christmassy enough and looks good with the white. Then, how to decorate it? I've kind of themed this tree in the past, but decided to use as many as necessary so it didn't look bare, but as few as possible, if that makes sense. I also eschewed unboxing any of the boxed ornaments; I have an entire tote just of those. Most years, I enjoy it, and it brings back a lot of memories, but this year it wasn't happening. Since we're skipping the princess tree, that left all those ornaments--tiny bulbs, translucent jewels; and I went into the Snapware containers for the smaller ornaments and put up the stained glass ones we made when I was a kid, plus these wooden ornaments we also made back in the day. Some snowflakes and stars completed it. Mom helped. Actually, grandma called as we were starting to put the ornaments on, so I put the phone on speaker, set it on the table, and we were both able to talk to her while we decorated.
That's it to this point. Only one tree in the living room, not three; no random tchotchkes on the tables; no snowglobes in the dining room; no angels in the bathroom; no Santas and snowmen in the family room. No wreaths, no stockings. I didn't even pull out a nativity and we have several of those. Not even the pickle. We've pared down this year, and it's okay. Maybe next year we'll do more.
Normally, we'd spend the weekend after Thanksgiving going all out. By "we," I mean dad would drag everything up from the basement and put the tree and lights up; I'd unbox everything and decorate the trees, plural. We have the full-size tree that's 6' or 7' tall; we have mom's pink princess tree that she got while in the throes of Shabby Chic-ing the living room; and after Papa died five years ago, we acquired his 3' tabletop tree.
It's that final tree, Papa's, that we ended up displaying this year. Given that dad was sick Thanksgiving weekend, and I've been sick ever since, neither of us had the strength or the motivation to do anything until this point. Dad had started bringing up some of the smaller bins earlier in the week, but I pretty much went, bah humbug. I'm just not feeling it this year. And it's not like anyone's coming over, like grandma has the past year or two. She's even been spending the night and opening gifts with us in the morning, which has been pretty fun, to be honest. That she's unable to join us at all, it's such a bummer.
I hadn't even planned on putting up anything today. I'd come downstairs for something unrelated and discovered dad had brought up two more items from the basement. The four medium-sized totes were already up; he added a box of lights and the box for Papa's tree. All of a sudden, I found myself unboxing it while mom cleared off the mirror-top table. That came from grandma, and it had been in the family room for years, holding our TV when the entertainment center wasn't the correct size for it. Now, the table is in the corner of the living room, next to the couch, on the edge of the dining room--precisely where I've been putting Papa's tree most years since we got it. I'd been thinking we'd just put the tree atop it, and since it's mirrored, we didn't necessarily need to put a tree skirt under it. Good, because while one tote I went into claimed there were two tree skirts inside, I didn't find them with a cursory search. I didn't check inside any bags or anything, though; I simply didn't care to.
Mom was funny. She was thinking Papa's tree was like the big tree and would take a lot to put together. I was on the other side of the room while she cleaned off the table, and she's going, don't put it together over there and drag it over! Like...how big do you think this tree is? Do you honestly not remember it from year to year? All you have to do is pop in the three base pieces, unfold the top branch, and fluff the rest of the branches, and tada! Instant tree.
Papa's tree came with a box of white lights, so I put those on; it seemed a little bare. Mom didn't want dad to get the other light box and wondered, what lights do we have in here? There were several boxes dad picked up years ago, where he took multicolored strands and combined the colors for one red, one green, to put on an outdoor wreath. And, inexplicably, there were four boxes of purple. They're not truly purple, which disappointed my dad. I think he wanted them for Halloween purposes, maybe? Mom wanted to see them, so I plugged in one set, and she went, it's pink! Use that one! To my eyes, it almost looks red on the tree, which is Christmassy enough and looks good with the white. Then, how to decorate it? I've kind of themed this tree in the past, but decided to use as many as necessary so it didn't look bare, but as few as possible, if that makes sense. I also eschewed unboxing any of the boxed ornaments; I have an entire tote just of those. Most years, I enjoy it, and it brings back a lot of memories, but this year it wasn't happening. Since we're skipping the princess tree, that left all those ornaments--tiny bulbs, translucent jewels; and I went into the Snapware containers for the smaller ornaments and put up the stained glass ones we made when I was a kid, plus these wooden ornaments we also made back in the day. Some snowflakes and stars completed it. Mom helped. Actually, grandma called as we were starting to put the ornaments on, so I put the phone on speaker, set it on the table, and we were both able to talk to her while we decorated.
That's it to this point. Only one tree in the living room, not three; no random tchotchkes on the tables; no snowglobes in the dining room; no angels in the bathroom; no Santas and snowmen in the family room. No wreaths, no stockings. I didn't even pull out a nativity and we have several of those. Not even the pickle. We've pared down this year, and it's okay. Maybe next year we'll do more.