The Christmas Box

I'm STILL working on getting my Christmas decorating done. It has proven to be a much slower process than expected, and truly, than it really ought to be. In the process of decking the halls, I have found interruptions hampering the completion of the task at hand come from the usual daily aspects of life, errands, night shifts, and even, at times, lethargy. It is coming along though.

I think I have procrastinated some in getting the job done because I knew that, this year, I was going to retire a big old cardboard box that has stored ornaments and a couple of other random Christmas decorations over the years. I really hate to to retire it (READ: trash it), but I didn't realize the extent of my attachment to that old box until this evening as I was taking out the ornament boxes that have so neatly fit inside that box while waiting patiently to be opened up each year in anticipation of so many Christmas celebrations. I transferred the individual ornament boxes into new clear plastic containers that would keep the contents more protected, but that box...that box was more than just a storage container for out of season ornaments. It was (is, for the moment) also a repository for memories.

It holds memories of its past life hearkening back to the days when we were pretty broke, and our Christmas decorations could fit into a single box that also happened to be shared with random household goods from our linen closet, back when it was originally commissioned into service. In the course of time and many military moves, the box eventually came to be an "ornaments only" box, and it's contents safely traveled with us to new homes in new places that would be transformed into "home" for the Christmas holidays we spent there, anchoring our past with the present through the bits and pieces of our lives and happy memories of Christmases past that the ornaments in the box symbolized. It has symbolized the growing up of our children and the passing of pets who were loved and so much a part of our family too.

Emptying out that box in anticipation of its retirement proved to be a more emotionally difficult thing for me to do than I had expected. It was difficult enough that I had to stop and take photos and write about it before I could break it down. That task still awaits. Retiring the box - breaking it down, and hauling it out to the garage to await the next trash collection day isn't just about retiring an old, but in some ways, perhaps still serviceable box. No. For me, it is closing a chapter in my life. The Christmas box that followed us around for my husband's whole military career, and was with us for each Christmas as our children grew and as some have left home, has been a sort of friend and fixture who was always there, faithful, maybe taken for granted at times. I'm going to miss that box and the part of my life that will, in a sense, go away with the box. The memories, however... the memories I get to keep.

By the Way....

The halls STILL have not been completely decked.

There is PROGRESS though.

PROGRESS is good.

The Plight of the Snowman

GOODNESS it's COLD outside!!!! It's windy too! I had to go outside to try to resurrect our fallen snowman yard decoration, but to no avail. When I found him (the snowman), he had the appearance of one who had been shot in the back, execution-style, on my front lawn. It should not be!!! It is hard enough for snowmen to survive the hardships of their short existence without having to endure the indignity of being blown down and left cast down on the ground with the appearance of a suburban crime victim. Unable to put the snowman back together, his present state isn't much better. He is now laying on his side on my front porch. Tomorrow, I will once again attempt to given him life...at least for the Christmas season. He does not look nearly as charming laying on the front porch as he did standing and sparkling as he welcomed passersby and visitors from the front lawn. It IS most certainly an improvement to be laying on the porch than to look as if he were a crime victim sprawled out on the cold, frozen tundra though.

On Decking the Halls

Since Thanksgiving weekend, I have been on a mission to deck my halls for the Christmas season which is now in full swing. I really would prefer to put up my Christmas tree the weekend after Thanksgiving because Thanksgiving is a busy holiday unto itself, and as a purist, I don't like to let Christmas infringe on my Thanksgiving holiday. I really believe it is important to let Thanksgiving be Thanksgiving, and only Thanksgiving, because it is so important, to me, that the day of thankfulness and harvest blessings be honored on its own merits with the emphasis on expressions of thankfulness to our Creator, as well as in remembrance of the pilgrims who held the first Thanksgiving feast with the Indians who helped them survive that brutal first year, here, in the new land. I like the Christmas season too, but I don't like the commercial aspect of the Christmas holiday with it's encroachment on Thanksgiving nowadays.

I can remember when stores were closed on Thanksgiving, then the push for marketing Black Friday became the norm, and eventually some stores opted to be open on the Thanksgiving holiday, itself, with promises of fantastic deals to entice people away from their Thanksgiving celebrations in order to buy the perfect Christmas gifts at unheard of prices. Granted, merchants couldn't do this without the cooperation of the consumer, and in all reality, the diminished significance of the place for Thanksgiving in the hearts and homes of Americans, today, while the push to start the Christmas spending frenzy as soon as possible, really speaks to the values of the nation and shows what is important to its people. I can't help but think of the following scripture: "for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." [Matthew 6:21] We give our attention to those things which are most important and valued by us.

But getting back to the matter of decking the halls in anticipation of the Christmas celebration, because of my conviction that Thanksgiving should be honored as a standalone holiday, I do not even begin to put away the harvest, autumn, and Thanksgiving decorations until after Thanksgiving. However, at the behest of my children, I do so immediately after Thanksgiving! They would have the tree up on Black Friday, if they had a choice, and we try, but it doesn't always work out. The Christmas tree is usually up Thanksgiving weekend though. Other decorations follow, in the process of decking the halls, in the remaining weeks leading up to Christmas. It is a challenge because in addition to all of the usual things I feel like I barely have time to do in a given day or week, I am embarking on a major temporary redecorating project that has to be squeezed into the schedule of routine things that must be done, and all of the chaos associated with hauling out decorations only adds to the routine upkeep of the home and inhibits the usual process, which I already mentioned I find difficult to keep up with in an ordinary day or week. I was thinking about this last night, and I came to the conclusion that there is a certain insanity to this. This year I've been seriously considering multiplying the insanity by putting up a second Christmas tree, however. We used to do this a few years back, but we haven't done so in about 4 years. I'm thinking I'd like to have the second tree this year though.

This year, for the first time in a number of years, we actually put colored lights on our main large Christmas tree. It just seemed like it was time. I really like the clear lights too, and they do such a nice job of illuminating your ornaments at night, but we missed the colored lights. I think we have a certain sense of nostalgia for the past when our kids were little, and we only used colored lights on our tree. I think our kids were feeling some of that same nostalgia for the paradise of their childhoods and the magic of Christmas. My oldest son has even been quite vocal about how Christmas is about colored lights. I made the mistake of asking what he thought about our Christmas trees over the last few years that were adorned with clear lights, and I was tersely informed that he essentially tolerated those Christmas trees, but they did not say, "Christmas," to him. Having put up a tree with colored lights though, I still found myself missing the clear lights on a Christmas tree. If all goes well, I will have a second tree with clear lights up by this afternoon. THEN I can see about getting all of the boxes of ornaments and tinsel that are occupying valuable real estate in my great room and dining room put back in the basement where they belong and focus on enjoying the rest of the Christmas season!

Like a Kid in a Toy Store

Yesterday was a day of much running around. If the two Target stores I visited were any indication, people are spending right now. The lines at the checkouts were especially long at the Target we stopped into about an hour before closing time, and it was next to impossible to find a person to help you in either electronics department as both were literally swamped.

I must confess, and I hate to do so, but I have not been in a Hallmark store for some time. It may have been as little as a year, or it could have been 2-3 years, but it's been a while. I can think of a couple of reasons for this: 1) I buy a lot of my greeting cards at either Target or Wal-Mart. My Christmas cards, even when I buy Hallmark cards, are often bought at Kohl's, on sale and with percentage-off coupons. 2) The Hallmark ornaments we buy usually come from Kohls and other stores that carry some of the Hallmark Keepsake product line too. 3) I just don't usually think to stop in to the Hallmark store.

Last night, we went into the local Hallmark store though. We were in search of a Santa ornament, for our oldest son, who really only likes Santa ornaments and more specifically, "Hallmark" Santa ornaments. I felt like a kid in a toy store! I got so excited about all of the different ornaments on display and finally announced to the hubster that I couldn't take any more cuteness, I needed to look at some of the other items in the store. The rest of the store was full of more Hallmark goodness and eye candy. The staff at our store was awesome too. They were friendly and made themselves available, in the event we needed assistance, but they didn't hover. It was a wonderful shopping experience. I probably would have stayed a little longer if we hadn't needed to stop at Target, it wasn't so close to closing time for the Hallmark store, and if staying wouldn't have inflicting more damage to our bank account. But I will be going back soon and I probably will buy more goodies.