51/365: It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

I love Christmas. I love the spirit of the season, celebrating with family and friends, giving gifts, decorations, and baking. I have been decorating a Christmas tree since I was a young child and had to stand on a chair to put ornaments at the top of the tree. That's because as a child, we didn't do a lot of Christmas hoopla. For a number of years, my dad and brothers put trees on a 80 foot Cyprus tree, but that was it. (and Mom didn't have to do anything with it.) So I began collecting ornaments in college. For about seven years, I put Hallmark ornaments in layaway so I could be sure to get the ones I wanted and then I'd be in line at the Hallmark store on December 26 to pick through the ones that were half price. I will not admit to you how many ornaments I have . . . I actually can't because I've never counted them. All I know is that my current tree is about 8-9 feet tall and I have a few totes still full of ornaments I don't use.

When I moved into my first apartment, I also set some strict holiday guidelines for myself. The tree goes up the day after Thanksgiving. That's to give me the maximum time to enjoy it because, on December 26, by sundown, all signs of Christmas will be erased from my house save the evergreen wreath on my front door. Again, this goes back to my childhood because we often were taking down the tree on Valentine's Day. Last Friday my tree went up. The garland and Santa were on and other decorations displayed throughout the house. But I didn't get to the ornaments, much to Bella's chagrin. She asked about them on Sunday but I was spent after the cx race. And Monday after work I was on the trainer and didn't have time to get them out to put on the tree. I was planning getting to it tomorrow.

Tonight I came home to this glorious sight. Klucker and the kids had decorated the tree for me. I can't tell you how huge this is. Klucker will put away my ornament boxes and schlep things up and down the stairs for me, but decorating has always been my realm. (In all fairness it's probably because I'm uber-picky about my ornaments, boxes, storage.) But he took the chance because he knew how much I hated to making Bella wait. And because of that, in my eyes, it's the most beautiful tree I've seen.