It worked! And now I'm about ready to have my house back, remove the tree and put my furniture back where it belongs! Guess I put it up too early...I usually set the tree up and decorate it after Thanksgiving dinner. Thanksgiving day is the gateway to Christmas for me. (Guess I can blame that on the Macy's Parade; when I was a kid, I watched as it ended with Santa and his sleigh, heralding the beginning of Christmas season. I was psychologically embedded by Macy's and TV.)
But this year, my clever plan had me opening the gateway to Christmas while the little kiddies were running around yelling "trick or treat." Yepper, I was decorating for Christmas on Halloween. I wanted to be sure I had a full Christmas season...oh boy, I've had a full Christmas season alrighty. Instead of taking the tree down on New Years, I just may be taking it down the day after Christmas!
Although, now that I'm looking at it standing over there in the corner, its white lights glistening like ice and snow, its years of memories hanging from the boughs on little silver hooks, the festive red glass balls and gold sleigh bells scattered from bottom to top, I'm thinking, I just might wait until New Years after all. Christmas is a wonderful time, and when else can I have the house so filled with color and glitz and light?
While looking at my tree with the red and white tree skirt and the fuzzy stockings, many years of Christmases flood my memory, warming my heart, sometimes pulling a tear from my eye. The family and friends I have been blessed to share Christmas memories with, the changes in lives, loves, passing of old, some things lost, many things gained, and above all, the reason for Christmas, the birth of Christ, of the promise of life and love...all these things I see when I look at my tree. Nope, I'm not in any hurry to take the tree down, not yet anyway. There's still more memories to revisit, more memories to make.
I just may have started a new Halloween tradition at my house... "Boo! And Merry Christmas!"
May you have a memorable, warm and blessed Christmas!
