Reindeer Games

A lot has changed over the past year. A new town, new home, new job… In all the realignment one thing has stayed constant: Christmas is my time for my faith, my family, my friends, and my belief that all non-movable surfaces should be decorated. Even some movable ones get the treatment too. Just ask the dogs and cat.

The new house has presented a bit of a challenge. It’s 1,000 sq. ft. smaller than the old one. There is no way 21 trees (personal best) will fit in this place. Also, we’re now empty nesters and the children refuse to linger much past Thanksgiving because they know I've been itching to pull out the multitude of boxes from the attic and get going. So, I've been forced by space and time to pull out only my favorite things.

I thought I could make it with only one tree. Sometimes I crack myself up. Current count is three, with about a 60% chance of a fourth. Depends on if I can find all the lights and ornaments. You see, when we moved in last spring the plan was to neatly organize the attic as the moving boxes went in the house. That scheme lasted less than an hour. Movers don’t want to stick around while the wife thinks about what goes where. And they sure don’t want to be there when you find out they shoved three rooms of stuff into four very large boxes. So into the attic it all went, wherever it could be crammed.

Leading us to the day after Thanksgiving. I wanted to make surgical strikes, pulling out only what I wanted to use. Hubby wanted to drag it all out and reorganize the way we had originally planned. He had an ulterior motive. We are having a shed built to house his yard equipment, his tools, and his hobby stuff. See the pattern? It was also supposed to house some of the boxes our daughter has left in our care while she is in Japan. Apparently, they don’t fit the pattern of “his” stuff and he figured if he could get them into the attic, he could get a third “man” room of the house. He won, but as a result we have not finished decorating.

I also have to return eight boxes of lights to three different stores this week. For some reason the lights for all the trees were well hidden among the attic boxes. We bought two new light sets using coupons at one hobby store. Then went to a second store and bought two more. Did you know that there are two different colors of “clear” LED lights? Ours didn't match. So I went to a department store and looked for boxes to match at least part of what we already had purchased. I found out that store’s lights were half the price of the other two stores! So I bought four boxes and figured I would return the first two purchases. Of course, later that afternoon, I opened, quite literally, the LAST box marked Christmas in the attic and there were the missing lights! Now ALL the new sets can be taken back.

Meanwhile, I've managed to find space for parts of my Santa collection, my snowman collection, my Nativities, my blown glass ornaments, my childhood ornament collection, and my Christmas dish sets. With every piece I've pulled from a box and unwrapped I remember when I first saw them. So many of them were gifts from friends through the years or a comment on something in my life. They are more than just objects. They are pieces from my childhood, from loved ones now gone, from parties, from vacations, from my children’s milestones, from past students. And I can tell you about each and every one of them. Even the dog’s tacky Christmas sweaters.