blue artichoke

I watched two more episodes of Carnivale last night, right before going to bed, and woke up dreaming about Las Vegas.

Before I watched Carnivale, however, I watched the Big 12 championship game and decorated for Christmas. I have mixed feelings about Christmas. As a holiday, it's OK. It's not my favorite because it is just too stressful trying to find the perfect present for everyone on my list and spending almost as much time in transit as visiting our families. But mainly I don't like it because it just starts too early. Christmas songs are playing in stores after Halloween and holiday decorations are up even before Thanksgiving. By the time December 25th actually rolls around, I'm sick of it and glad for it to be over. Bah humbug, I know, but it's difficult to find or maintain the spirit through all the stress, shopping and endless repetitions of Amy Grant's Christmas songs.

Last year was the first year I put up a tree, and that was at GC's request. It seems silly for me to do much holiday decorating because we're never at home for the holidays. I get all the work of decorating and undecorating, with not much time for enjoyment in between. But now that I'm married and actually have a "household," it seems appropriate to be festive. In December. So, while waiting for the Big 12 kickoff, I brought up our tree and decorations from the basement and decorated the living room. Fat Larry caught the Christmas spirit and helped me arrange ornaments on the tree, when he wasn't otherwise occupied by attacking the tree skirt.

We have a fake tree, white with prestrung lights. I bought it for $7 at an after-Christmas sale, and I really like it. We have just enough ornaments to look nice without being crowded. Our ornaments are meaningful. Most are mine, because my mom gave me a new ornament every year to reflect my interests. I have ornaments of my childhood friends: Eeyore, Paddington and Bert (no Ernie). I have musical ones, from when I took piano lessons and joined the middle school orchestra (violin). I have food and baking-related ornaments from when I went to cooking school and worked in a restaurant. I have lots of mouse-related ornaments from when I was a quiet, mousy little girl and my dad called me "Miss Mouse." I have elephant ornaments from my young Republican days (haha, that's a joke. After we lived in Africa, I was waaaay into elephants), and some Arabian ornaments from when we lived in Saudi Arabia. Since our marriage, GC's mom gives me a Gorham snowflake ornament every year at Thanksgiving, a tradition I very much enjoy. The tree isn't all me, though. I don't have any of GC's childhood ornaments, but my mom has been including him in the ornament tradition for several years. He has skiing, poker and music ornaments to reflect his interests, and tiny Mason jars from his family reunion. Maybe you can see some of the ornaments on this picture (and yes, that is an ornament of the leg lamp from A Christmas Story, the best Christmas movie ever):

The rest of my holiday decorations include candles and a few knickknacks. No big whoop.

By the way, Missouri lost the Big 12. So disappointing.

Getting to Know All About You: Christmas: For It or Against It?