In preparation for the big decoration day (henceforth known as D-Day), I've been scouring all kinds of magazines for ideas. Cottage Living (my new fave), Southern Living, Martha Stewart Living. If it's "living", I've looked at it. I've watched countless hours of HGTV, searching for the perfect inspiration for the holiday house-of-my-dreams. I warned Cal for a week that Saturday, December 1, would be the day. Would he please get my two rubbermaid boxes filled with fabulous Christmas decorations down from our attic? Sure, he says. No problem.
D-Day arrives. Cal does his part. I'm standing in my hall, ripe with anticipation about opening the boxes and revealing the treasures within. I lift the lid and ...
Oh yeah. My decorations. I forgot.
You see, my collection of holiday "treasures" includes pretty much my mother's and grandmother's old castoffs. There are the stained needlepoint angels, the Hallmark eskimos (who knew eskimos AND polar bears liked to play billiards?), the raggedy rocking horse, and the teddy bear ornament that's missing a plastic eye. All of these are at least, oh, 30 years old. All of them except the ones that say "Merry Christmas, Miss Terry!" or "I love my teacher!" Those, of course, are new. And equally as unattractive.
Looking at my hodge podge junkpile of decor, my enthusiasm began to fail me. I got out the two nice things that I own -- two different Nativity sets given as gifts from mom and my grandmother -- and set them up. I looked around at my great house. I stared again at my rubbermaid boxes. There was the garland that once lived in Mom's attic for 27 years. There were the once-silver angels that sat on her fireplace mantle back when I was seven. The stuffed reindeer that my high school boyfriend gave me one year. The santa kitty cat doormat. I pulled a few things out. Got frustrated. Abandoned the whole mess.
Sunday came, and everything was still sitting there, just as I'd left it the day before. Cal found me yesterday afternoon sitting on the floor of our guest room, surrounded by mounds of ugly festivity, crying. When he made the mistake of asking me what was wrong, I shook my head. Where to begin? I'm a failure! I cried. I can't even decorate my house for Christmas! What kind of woman has a beautiful house and stops halfway through trimming the mantle to go take a nap, never intending to resume her task? Apparently, this kind of woman.
After many reassurances (baffled though they may have been) on his part that he didn't care whether I was a home design guru or not, I packed the boxes back up (aside from a few ornaments and the two nativities) and sent them back to the attic. The decorating spirit that I know is waiting somewhere, deep down inside of me, will just have to wait patiently at least one more year. Or at least until I have the money to buy the items more similar to those I envisioned in my sugarplum dreams.
(I did, in the midst of my crisis, manage to run to Fred's and buy a seriously ugly, little white Christmas tree for $9, on which I hung the few ornaments that I salvaged out of the bins before they went back upstairs. I decided that if I'm gonna go fake, I'm gonna go BIG fake. It's actually kinda funky, in a tacky kind of way. Pictures below. Oh, and yes -- that IS Uga at the manger scene, and Jackie Robinson stealing home in the background. You got a problem with it?)
4 comments:
Both this and the post below are entirely delightful, Miriam. Oh, do I KNOW what you are talking about when you speak of decoration disappointment. Though not a homeowner, still, I have a funky little apartment that is all my own, and was very excited to make it warm and cosy in a *classy* way for Christmas . . . which means, as a result, the majority of my decorations remain in my enormous Christmas decor bag in my closet. Only the white lights, wooden ornaments, and gold and red balls made the cut. Sad. I do like your white tree and applaud your bravery-in-creativity. Brilliant way to compensate! Very cool.
Also, the photo journalism in the post below is just too much. It culminates so well with the yogurt-tasting shot. I love that Nick and Cal have bonded. LOVE it.
Thanks for the comments, Rebecca; I was beginning to think my blog had been (justifiably) abandoned due to my lack of posting. And thanks for your reassurances! You know how much I value your very edgy (even bohemian!) opinion.
As for the "photo journalism" below, I only wish that I had more computer skills so that I could've done a slideshow put to music. I think that the "So Happy Together" song (that's not the title, but you know what I'm talking about) would've been particularly appropriate, don't you? ...
YES. We will all still very much enjoy if you figure out how to create such a slide show with the Cal/Nick theme song. I would probably laugh to tears - and I need something along those lines right now!
I'm doing some catch up reading...I totally understand. Daniel's mom has passed along some of her Christmas past. I love some of it but other pieces are just old. I have been in a house for 5 years married for 6 and we're still working on collecting decorations. It will come with time and it is fun to look back at the things we've collected over the years. I try to buy an ornament or two each year so we collect them and have some memories.
Kelly
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