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Christmas Changes
December 7th, 2008
update: the next afternoon…Did you know sometimes I lay in bed and think about my blog? Is that weird? Probably, but it is true. So I was lying in bed thinking about what kind of Christmas tree we had. Was it spruce? I knew it was not pine…..I know it was FUR ! Wait is it fur, or is it FIR? Hmmm. Well it must be fur because The Husband proofread that (this) post for me, and he did not correct it, and he always spells things right, so fur it is. You know what? We were both wrong, the difference was lovingly illustrated by my darling brother–you know the one who has time to make FUR trees, but not update his own blog that I still stupidly check twice a day. Now I could go back and change all of my furs to firs and edit your comments, but that is hardly keeping it real now is it. Presenting a FUR tree, by JHJ, for those of you who “don’t click on links” .
——————–update over——————————————————–
I am waiting for The Husband to help me put up the Christmas tree. How long have I been waiting? Nine days! Yes, Internet, nine days. I wanted it up right after Thanksgiving. Progress has been made. The floor has been cleared of Hot Wheels and blocks in that general vicinity. The huge plastic crate has been removed from the attic, and the pole that is at the center of the thing is standing proudly in its plastic stand. Why do I feel like Christmas is passing me by when it is only December 7th? I feel so impatient. I am always looking forward to what comes next instead of enjoying the right now.
When I was a little girl we always had real trees. Real as in wood and needles instead of plastic and metal, not real as in some sort of existential dilemma. My father was very firm that it must be real. We would go to a Christmas tree lot, have the yearly argument between pine or fur, buy a fur because my dad always got out voted, and tie it on to the top of our minivan. Then it would sit outside in a big galvanized tub for a few days. Why? I have no idea, something about water or bugs or something. I think it was because my dad had to break up the festivities into as small of increments as possible. It would sit there and JHJ and I would just look at it and ask, “Today?” “Mom, can we decorate it today?” “Daddy, will you bring it in tonight?” That is where I am right now, waiting, waiting, waiting…., tonight Husband?
My dad would repeat every year, “No singing Christmas carols until after Mom’s birthday (12/16).” “Bah, Hum Bug!” “Why do we need all of this junk?” “I am going to take the batteries out of that thing!”. Why? I have no idea about that one either, but then around my mom’s birthday he would lug the big fur onto the driveway, trim it with a saw and hedge clippers, screw it into the base he made, carry it inside, fill it up with water, help put on the lights, pull out the big ladder to perch the angel at the top, and watch us decorate it. On Christmas morning we always had already put together and charged up toys from Santa, and a few presents wrapped in old maps or newspaper, a coffee can with rocks in the bottom to make it heavy and clank if we tried to shake it to guess what was inside, they would be tied with a bungee cord or a length of rope–my father’s wrapping signature. Inside would be something awesome, something we loved and did not even know that we wanted.
The tree would come down on New Year’s Day, the carols banned for another 349 days. We never felt like we missed anything. In fact maybe it was so special because it was contained into such a tight little two week period.
Tonight I was at my parents house helping decorate their pre-lit plastic fur. I was singing Silent Night, and dad put batteries in a singing snowman for The Son. I thought I wanted change, but now I am not so sure. Bah, Hum Bug.
Filed under Family-blame the DNA | Comments (10)10 Responses to “Christmas Changes”
I know we’re not supposed to correct grammar or spelling, but I’ve been behaving myself so well since you started this blog that I think I’ve earned one.
Your usage of “fur” is hilarious! It makes me picture a synthetic fur coat covered in Christmas lights and ornaments. I think we should forgo Christmas trees from now on and just decorate outerwear. A new tradition!
I can’t post a picture in a comment? Dang!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v12/NoNewWitticisms/FurTree.png
O.K., I can clear up a few of the reasons for change. Several years ago, we decided an artificial tree would be more economical and easier by alleviating all the dried up needles that get distributed across the house when dragging it out after Christmas and by having the lights already on it, which always spurred bickering. I’m here to give testimony that now the mess is made by the artificial tree shedding its needles. And, those pre-lit lights? At best they worked for a year. Now, we have a pre-lit tree with many unlit lights. In fact, this year we cut off the plugs to all the pre-lit ones and as much of the wire as we could.
So, we’ve just had the discussion again, real or artificial? Now the only reason to keep it is the $75 – $100 per year for the cost of the real one.
Regarding the decorating early instead of on my birthday, a tradition that stems from my childhood. I decided that too many times unpleasantness crept into the setting up the tree and I don’t want to have tension on my birthday any more. Curiously, this year we set up the tree and strung the lights (Dad and I) without an argument, and he even suggested adding 300 more lights!!!
Another reason for early decorating, we are taking Grandma and Grandpa on a road trip for several days and it would make the remaining days til Christmas too stressed if we wait til we return.
Reason for the Huckablogs not to get in a rush…less time for careful supervision of a little guy who might decide to CLIMB the tree.
Last, Dad has mellowed a bit about noisy things, but the singing snowman still got slapped around a little after The Son went home.
LMAO @ JHJ!!!! I thought the same thing when reading this, and I’m glad you mentioned it! Contrary to your family, we ALWAYS had an artificial tree. There was one year when we (as in, my grandparents, I had absolutely no part in the decision) decided to go with a real tree from the real woods behind our house. It was messy, the needles hurt when you touched them, and it was a pain to keep watered. I am all about the artificial trees.
As a matter of fact, we’ve had a small 4-ft artificial tree for about 8 years (remember trying to sell it at your yard sale that year, Hey You?). We’ve never lived in a big enough place to have room for a full-size tree. Now that we’re in our new house, I am frothing at the mouth to get a full-sized, pre-lit tree. I’m glad grammy mentioned the lights only working well for about a year. I wonder if that’s not the case for all pre-lit trees, ’cause my in-laws put their tree up the day after Thanksgiving and some of their lights weren’t working either. I’ll probably just get one that’s not pre-lit.
Which brings me to another dilemma. I have lots of stuff to decorate the house with for Christmas. Many of our neighbors have put lights up on their houses, and I want to be one of the people with lights on their house. I also want to put my little figurines and Christmas-themed carousel out in the house, but I kind of don’t see the point. We are always gone the entire week of Christmas. The last time I decorated for Christmas (the last time I even put up a tree) was 3 years ago when we were living in KS and my brother and his family stopped by for early Christmas.
Now I’ve gone and hijacked your blog. But seriously, my cats would try to climb the tree and/or eat the lights/ornaments. The last time we put up a tree we had to leave the bottom two feet bare (looked kinda funny, actually). I need someone to force my hand to start decorating, but then once I got started I’d get so excited and be happy that I did. Okay, I’ve got tons to do today and I can’t believe I wrote all this. Snap!!
I too had visions of a decorated fur, though not quite the same as JHJ. I was picturing a bear rug with tinsel and lights. How funny!
As for the decorating, my family has always decorated on my birthday (November 20), and we’ve always had an artificial tree (see ShoeShe for details). The year my parents downsized really pissed me off, but looking back I’m not really even sure why I was so upset.
Decorate at leisure. Nothing about Christmas should be stressful. Besides, the longer you wait, the more you are forced to participate (whether you like it or not) in the season of Advent…perhaps the waiting can give you a more joyous experience and help prepare you even more for the celebration of birth to come!
Grammy, I can’t believe you had such trouble with your fake pre-lit tree. The Tarks have had the same prelit tree since we gave our other fake one to the hubckablogs a few years back. We have never had any trouble with it and it always looks great with no mess.
We almost got a real one this year since our youth group was selling them for a fund raiser, but after getting them in at the church and just cleaning up that mess I am so glad we did not do it. We did get a live wreath though and it is so pretty.
Ang if I were you I would maybe just get a table top tree and put that up, there are some really cute ones and then maybe add a few touches of Christmas like a wreath and a few poinsettias. That way you get the Christmas feel without feeling you did too much for just a few weeks.
Sure did, Cat. We really did take wire cutters to it this year before putting our own strings on it. Also, the nuisance of fluffing up the branches every year as it is set up and the wrapping it up in a blanket, like a dead body, before Dad pulls it up into the attic using a pulley is a lot of added work.
Hmmm…didn’t realize I didn’t comment on this one. Well, the only thing I can say is that I know a few teachers who would probably wear that fur Christmas coat in ALL seriousness! HeyYou just loves the fact that I own and once wore a whole collection of Christmas sweaters, leggings, bracelets, necklaces, etc….Hey, it was the 90s…PLUS it’s what teachers do! (Sadly, school administrators, in their need to be taken seriously, tend to tone things down a LOT.)
Yes, I still own a lot of that stuff…the collection helps a select few elementary teachers win the “Ugliest Christmas Sweater Contest” yearly!!