Festive Labors

Returning to a full day of work after taking most of the prior day off is always full of challenges and yesterday was no exception.  The work induced turmoil was assuaged to a large degree by my weekly lunch with my favorite son.  At first I didn’t think I’d be able to make the lunch because the meetings were piling up but I shifted a couple things around for the sake of my sanity.  My son supplied me with the usual dose of pride and love which reduces the rest of the daily trash to the mundane level.

Sanity Inducing Lunch Partner

I returned home to find the wife in full holiday decoration mode.  She’d totally redesigned her nativity scene and created a Christmas village on the mantle which required some adjustments to ensure pine trees were not blocking the lower edge of the new television.  We cannot obscure the all important sports ticker scroll.  My wife has a real talent for decoration and I’m left to marvel at her ability given my complete lack of fashion sense.

Nativity Scene

She also has the ability to make seldom used items disappear in her eternal quest in instill some sort of order in the wake of my general sloppiness.  The house is way too big for just the two of us so this has provided innumerable hiding spots whenever she is “cleaning”.  Last night’s victims were my winter hats which I kind of needed since I was being dispatched outside to set up Christmas lights.  I accepted full responsibility for the missing hats although I was thinking while doing this she always accuses me of not putting things away.  They’ll turn up eventually when we open the right box or drawer, in April.

The Mantle Village

Since the past weekend was consumed with frivolity for the most part I had to get outside to set up these lights after work.  The coyotes and turkeys were having some sort of major dust up in the woods behind the house which ended kind of abruptly (bad news for the turkeys I’m guessing – especially after making it through Thanksgiving unscathed).

The Lights Project Begins

It wasn’t so bad, except for the 33 degree cold but my wife solved that when she produced a Santa hat for me to wear.  I was grateful for warm ears again and that it was so dark the neighbors couldn’t appreciate my festive garb.  The cold also meant I was able to get the job done with a minimum of supervision since my wife is allergic to temperatures below 60. 

The Lights Finished

This did create problem late at night when I thought I was finished.  In a move that reeks of incompetence I hung the wrong sized Christmas ornaments on the front porch.  I walked in to report completion when she produced much larger size ornaments and questioned why I didn’t remember we had gone to a bigger size last year.  I thought the question answered itself and wisely remained silent while I replaced the obviously too small ornaments.  She rewarded my efforts with the first hot chocolate of the season which did wonders to warm some aged bones. 

The Obviously Too Small Ornaments on the Right

I’ve written before how much I love Christmas and I am definitely getting psyched as the decorations go up -

We’re getting close to my favorite time of year. I am an unabashed and unrepentant lover of Christmas time, in all of its glorious corniness. I love Christmas carols, Christmas parties, but most of all Christmas Day. I still remember one special year in my early teens when I was overcome with Christmas spirit, feeling so good about the season and just general happiness that I wondered at my sanity. This feeling lasted until well after Christmas and no, to all you cynics out there, the feelings were not chemically assisted.

 

Every year since then has been an attempt to recapture that feeling (which may involved certain adult beverages). Most years I get it in bits and pieces, usually associated with time I spend with my family and friends. My wife and kids smile, good naturedly, when I start holding forth about Christmas because they know how important it is to me. I know there are those raging elements or hipsters out there that bemoan what modern Christmas has evolved to. Some say it’s overly commercialized or others not properly religious.

There are always those elements in society – Grinchs for lack of a better term. People so unhappy with their own lives that they target times or traditions that bring happiness to others for scorn. I could not care less about these self-important gas bags. There is nothing in life more enjoyable than being around people you love and actually taking some time out of the all too busy lives we all lead to just simply be together.

A friend from high school posted the following video on Facebook today which just added fuel to the fire of impending Christmas spirit.