The older I get, the more I know that I am compulsive about my traditions, neurotic about my pacing, and hypnotic with the rituals. Thursday's Thanksgiving might have tanked (whomp whomp whomp) but Friday's Christmas decorations were not going to fail me...
...except I had a migraine (which I haven't had in a century)...
...and I needed to meditate, take a hot shower, and reconfigure. By 8:30 p.m. I felt better and I went to work.
As always, I love taking out my Aunt Bobby's nativity set that my mother made her in ceramics. I've juzzed it up a bit (that is a Pam word) with my Buddha's, Japanese counting cat, frogs, and adult Jesus (I've been scolded for years that Jesus should be made into a burrito until Christmas morning. That's when he can be unwrapped),
As always, 75% of the outdoor lights worked find, with the one strand messing up the entire line, causing me to have to repurchase another season of white lighting. I live having my house decorated in white lighting, as opposed to all the crazy colors.
I was also able to do the inside of my new porch, which I love, because now I feel like I am working in a hippie sanctuary and I can return to being called Mr. Moonbeam, Aquarian warlord of the Pond people. I've also created a tradition of not throwing out all the family Xmas cards that come every year, because I find it funny to see the evolution of people (especially as kids become teens and I know the parents are thinking, "Why did we want to start a family again?").
Tomorrow I will hit the 2nd floor, doing candles in all the windows and adding dangling lights, too. Tunga's on tree patrol as I inherited one of the 8 trees Pam has bought over the last decade (as she has an addiction to post-Christmas tree purchases). I have no problem with the one she was throwing out in 2012. It is just fine for me - my first tree and probably my last. I do believe, however, it's about the reflections and rituals that make the transitions what they are. I remember on Amalfi Drive, how fun it was to get out mom's ornaments and all the decorations they hoarded over the years.
The same is true for me. I still have my first adult gift of a singing, croaking frog that a parent bought for me in the year 1999. The same batteries still work and I let it croak "Jingle Bells," every time I remove it from its box. I'm in my 3rd house now...and I am guessing this is the one I will be in for a while (who knows?). As always, I will enjoy the lights up until a departure to upstate NY. I've yet to stay in MY own house for a single Christmas, but that's a tradition I've loved sustaining.
"There's no place like home for the holidays."
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