A weekly list of things accomplished, enjoyed, learned, tried and remembered.
It’s time. Every year Super Rockstar and I have a battle of wills on when we should decorate for Christmas. He’s pretty much ready to go as soon as Halloween is out of the way, but I’m more traditional. I have always insisted that we wait until the Friday after Thanksgiving. This year, however, Thanksgiving is so dang late. We host a Christmas party in our home every year and this year we scheduled it so dang early. Worlds are colliding so I relented and agreed to get it done early this year.
Day 1: The bringing in, the setting out, and the getting started. I admit that we might have a bit of a problem when it comes to the amount of Christmas decorations we own. Step one is always bringing in every box, unpacking them and then setting everything out.
Super Rockstar and I naturally slip into our respective duties. He gets right to work setting up our big family room tree. For the first 22 years of our life together we always purchased a real Christmas tree–choosing the biggest one we could find (think Griswold’s), but over the years allergies have gotten the best of us and three years ago we decided to purchase an artificial pre-lit tree. It’s been wonderful to only have to snap a few pieces together and plug her in….until this year. Last year he noticed that all of those pre-lit lights were no longer lighting up the whole tree, but he was able to patch a few strands in here and there. This year there were only about 20 lights on the whole tree that worked.
This is where pre-lit trees and Super Rockstar part ways. They had a good relationship as long as the tree did it’s part of staying–you know–pre-lit. But, faced with the overwhelming task of having to now cut off the VERY securely fastened lights (seriously–it would be easier to remove them if they were super glued, soldered, and encased in cement)–he was over it. Seven hours, lots of heavy sighs, a little weeping and crying and a HUGE mess of the little plastic thingies–he had it done. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen him so defeated. An entire day–just to take lights OFF a tree. Now he had to put new lights ON the tree.
Meanwhile I was able to get all the garland hung and a good amount of the accessories put out. At the end of the day–we were exhausted, but there’s still so much more to do and the house was a complete wreck.
Day 2: There’s no turning back. At this point we have come too far to quit, but the stuff left to do is overwhelming. A good amount of coffee, some Christmas music, and a little (ok a lot) of chocolate help to get me through.
Super Rockstar got all the lights on the family room tree and decorated. He also set up and lit our library tree, hung all the wreaths and wall decorations throughout our home, and started the clean up process (good grief how do these trees still have any needles?!). The boys decorated “their” downstairs tree, and I worked on the rest. The “rest” includes finding homes for each and every Santa, snowman, stocking, reindeer, ornament, bow, and lantern. I have no system for this. Sometimes I remember where I put them last year. Sometimes I just let the “force” lead me.
Day 3: The tedious details. This is by far my least favorite day. There are only about 40 items left to place, but it’s down to figuring out where something is needed and what item will fit there. There are many trips up and down stairs, a lot of muttering to myself as I point and make mental notes of where a such and such my work and then grumbling because either it doesn’t work or I forgot to grab it with the 8 other items and now I have to go back.
Day 3 1/2: Done. All has been placed, lit, set up, cleaned up and complete. We usually celebrate with a high five of another year of getting it done and then make vows to not purchase ANYTHING else. Unfortunately– come June when garage sale season starts –we find cute Christmas décor that we don’t already own and all vows are forgotten and broken. The mad, mad, cycle continues.
Hope you have a great week!