Though I’m in Australia, and find it practically impossible to remember that Christmas is coming (if it was 80 degrees, every day, would you remember?), I occasionally manage to beat that piece of information into my head. Ok, to be honest, when I was living in PA, I had trouble remembering, too, even if it was snowing hard and I was vacuuming pine needles from under the Christmas tree, in the Inn.
The only times I really remember is when I’m at home, helping to do the usual decorating for our house. So, I don’t know if the decorating has started without me, yet, but I know they’ll get to the same stuff soon, this year.
I start the night off right by filling a CD changer with my favorite Christmas discs, and the first one to blast off is always Celine Dion. That would usually be followed by some of my “modern” favorites for Christmas, Billy Gilman, Michael Crawford, Linda Eder, Hayley Westenra, and several others. But the other changers would be loaded with Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Mannheim Steamroller, and then the classics. And Handel’s The Messiah is always ready to be played.
So, while the sounds of Celine Dion fill the room, with me singing along, at the top of my lungs, my brothers start putting the Christmas tree together, while I get all the Christmas lights out and string them across the floor. If part of a string’s out, I’ll spend ages trying to figure out which bulb is causing the problem, and more often than not, I succeed. It’s fun!
Once the tree has been assembled, the boys clear out, having lost interest in decorating the tree, sometime back when they were under the age of ten. Mom and I take over, putting the lights on the tree, then several strings of red beads, and then it’s time to bring up the boxes of ornaments, if we haven’t done so already.
Over the next day or two, we decide which ornaments are going up, as some of the older or more worn out ornaments get left in the boxes. By this time, the small tree for the front hall has been brought up. This tree, which is a little shorter than I am, has only white lights, so we put all the white, silver and gold ornaments on it. Also, anything fragile or very beautiful. The more fun and colorful ornaments go on the big tree.
When the trees are up, the manger scenes and other decorations come out, as well. We definitely get into the spirit of decorating for Christmas, inside the house, but you will not find an abundance of Santa Clauses. Snowmen are more our thing.
So, this is what my house probably looks like right now, or at least it will soon. But I’m not going to be there to see it. Not this year.
Oh, and even with all the craziness of decorating for Christmas, my brothers and I still manage to get out for some target shooting, now and then. This is my target from last year, around this time. : ) But I got more ammo for Christmas, to replace what I used on my targets. : )
