Maybe this happens to every mama once their kids get big-the unChristmas spirit. The believing is gone, the magic subsides, and you’re left with a dusty, broken, and incredibly fake Christmas tree that no one wants to help you decorate.
Even you don’t know if you can muster the gumption to dig the thing out of the storage room.
IF you find it in your heart to just wrestle the tree up the stairs, you know for sure you do not have it in you for the rest of the yuletide paraphernalia you’ve accumulated.
And as long as we’re being truthful, you aren’t really sure if you ever really liked stuffed snowmen and ceramic replicas of Tiny Tim’s village OR if they just symbolized something greater.
The talk of “Something greater” always brings me here: nostalgic and wanton for those feety-pajamed little kids. A six year old would never allow this seasonal apathy.
Sadly (or not), finding a few more feety-pajamaed, giggly, tow-headed toddlers to play with is out of the question for us so I needed another route to find my spirit.
(Because the truth is, even these “reluctant to help”, non-believer big kids would balk if Christmas went ignored in this house.)
No joy would come of unstacking the 500 boxes of Christmas crap to get to that stupid tree, so I did what any resourceful person would do. Bought a new one; a fresh start for my holiday spirit.
Completely untraditional (and really cheap) tree that everyone, Big Mister included, thought was the dumbest and most unChristmas idea on the earth.
Behold…the chic, glittery, color coordinated key to getting my mojo back.
(flash)
(no flash)
I spent the next few days, jazzed to get Christmas back.
I chalked some art for above the fireplace (thrilled!) and added nothing
but a few pops of “red” at the request of the mister. No snowmen, no houses, no
candy canes—nothing I didn’t love.
I do love a twist of the traditional, so I set about making small pieces of
our family’s tradition visible; a little here, a little there.
Our stockings and my inheritance (a set of hand embroidered alphabet
ornaments by my mom back in the 70’s that I was just given a few years ago) We used these as kids on our Christmas tree--I treasure every last letter.
The nerd girls that I've been whipping up, finally, have a place to live.
See? She's super happy to be living at the corner of Glittery & White.
And so is she...
It's a party under the tree over here...
