| Merry Christmas |
[Dec. 25th, 2008|12:00 am] |
| [ | Tags | | | christmas, memories | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  cheerful | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Mannheim Steamroller and Trans-Siberian Orchestra | ] |
The tree is up (well it's been up with garlands and lights since Sunday) but it has ornaments as well now. A small tree, just a shred over ten feet. The front hall of our house (in the user icon) has an open staircase that makes a turn so the hall is two stories - with ten foot ceilings, we have sometimes had really tall trees.
I have never really accustomed myself to trees going up early - to me a Christmas tree goes up on Christmas Eve, and comes down on Epiphany.
All the presents are wrapped, even most all the ones that are going to Minnesota next week. It is a Christmas of comparatively less excess, but that's only comparative. There's still a bunch of stuff under the tree.
I did the last of my shopping this morning - I was at the Louis Joliet mall a little before eight, and out at 11:30, just as it started to get crazy. A quick stop at a Barnes and Noble after picking up B from work and we were done.
Getting in and out of the parking area and the alley was a bit of an adventure. The good news was that the city had plowed the alley. The bad news was that the city had plowed the alley and plowed us in. On the way out Ben got stuck, on the way in, I got stuck. B. extracted us in the morning, with a shovel and cat litter, and we got some help from two young men from next door on the way back in.
On the way in, it was clear that the Prius's clearance is low enough that with the extra snow from the alley, that it was just completely up on the snow. The last two winters have been mild enough mostly that between a 24 year old son and shovels, B hadn't gotten out the snowblower, but it looks like this winter will require it. So it was extracted, and would start with ether, but not stay running. It was drained of the old gas, and new gas acquired, and some time over the next four days Ben figures he'll get it running again. The only other issue will be that this is very wet snow.
I'm also happy to say that all the wrapping paper is back in the storage containers, plus I went through the gift boxes and disposed of a lot of mismatched ones, ratty ones, etc. (We reuse shirt/robe/etc boxes year to year - the backs of them say things like J 2001, K 2002, B 2003, L 2004, J 2005, etc, but some of them were really not worth keeping, since we are past the "wrap underwear and socks" for abundance stage.)
Christmas brings memories. I remember that when I was small (6, 7, 8) there was always a tremendous amount of stuff under the tree and to open, and when I was 10 and my parents had more money, I had some sense of loss, because my mother hadn't carefully set aside necessities to wrap and put under the tree. So all of the presents were really "presents." Fortunately I was old enough and smart enough to understand and not say anything until years later when it could be an amusing story.
And that Christmas had a gift that I still remember the wonder of opening. We had been shopping for a winter coat, and there was a blue and white tapestry hooded parka, that was something like three times as much as any of the other coats. I knew it didn't make sense, and only mooned over it a little before we walked away, with my mother saying we'd shop some more, and find something nice, especially since my current coat would do for a while yet.
It was under the tree, and I remember it still.
May you all have the joy of giving, for that is what the joy of exchanging gifts should be. |
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