We decked the halls the other day. There's a wreath on the front door, some new lights around the front entry, and new "candles" in the upstairs windows. I always wanted some of those dorky candles but I'd never gotten around to getting any. The opportunity presented itself when I had to make an emergency run to the hardware store for a new string of outdoor lights since the ones that had been stored away last year were toast. The battery-powered “candles” are crappy looking if you actually look at them but from a distance, like from the road looking at the house, they look great and have an eerily realistic flicker.
And the tree is up. After my husband and I got the lights on, the girl helped me hang the ornaments. This meant that we completely forgot the glass beads, and the ornaments were allocated without much regard to let's finish one box before we start the next, shall we? As a result, there are several half full boxes back down in the cellar, because I have more ornaments than tree. I’d have done it differently, but hey. She’s nine. She was having a good time.
Because I'm me, I narrated the history and provenance of nearly every ornament.
- Aw, Granny bought this at Martin Viette's, it was a fund-raiser.
- This box came from my grandmother, look, here's her handwriting on it.
- Look, it's a pickle! Look, it's another piece of cheese! Look, it's a potato!
- Pinky gave this red one to me.
- I love this really old one even though it's broken.
- Here’s the box of the really big balls that Daddy's mother brought back from Poland.
While I tend to contemplate the appropriate placement of each and every ornament, small and antique up high, large and less fragile down low, really heavy ones on a sturdy branch, the girl was kind of hither and yon. One thing lead to another and I found myself saying hey, that enormous Polish ball is too close to the floor, and somehow from there I ended up teaching her "do your balls hang low?" It may be our new Christmas-tree-decorating anthem.
8 comments:
Yeah, this helps me realize why my Christmas stuff has been a mess the past couple of years - lots of help from kids. I'm accustomed to it now and have let go quite a bit. Does that count as personal growth, or just a peculiarity I should keep quiet about?
Enjoy your festivities!
I was ridiculously pleased to realize this year that my younger son has inherited my family historian ways--which extends to the ornaments that go on the tree. No themed tree for him! Just the ornaments his father and I gave him every Christmas until he was well into adulthood so that he'd never have a sad, bare little tree once he got out on his own.
I narrate the ornaments, too. We've had great fun collecting them. Some were picked out by the kids, so I guess when they have their own trees, I'll send those with them.
And that's a great song--Walker always hangs some bells low, because it amuses him to hear the cats ringing them in the middle of the night.
I have narrated them, too. And they remember. And one day they will narrate. Beautiful...
http://bibliomama2.blogspot.ca/2010/12/wordless-wednesday-reasons-im-glad-i.html
Oh yeah - I think we've had this conversation before. :)
I love that "do your balls hang low" could be your new decorating anthem for Christmas. Now THAT'S a tradition worth handing down through the generations. And to think The Girl was there when it started!
Never let it be said it took more than a minor excuse for you to finally make a dorky purchase long in the brewing.
Did you sing "do your balls hang low?" with gestures?
I do that too! (Uh, narrate, not sing the song. But maybe next year...)
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