christmas-ornament | Saying nothing in particular

Today it took me less than an hour to decorate for the Christmas season and I didn’t break a sweat. I really didn’t need to decorate. We won’t be here. I did it out of habit. And nostalgia. The only ornaments I’ve hung onto over the years have some sort of special memory attached.

My sister made this ornament the year her son was diagnosed with leukemia and she had to sit in the children’s ward for hours. It reminds me of all the innocent children who suffer through no fault of their own.

We used to have boxes and boxes of ornaments, reindeer with blinking red noses for the front yard, Christmas villages surrounded by model train layouts … and a massive artificial tree that Joel found one year – half off! It had two thousand mini lights woven in its branches and, since nothing says Christmas like a tree that can be seen from outer space, he had to have it. Of course, the two thousand lights only worked if you found that one that had burnt out. What a pain in the patootie! I hated that tree!

Not really sure which child made either of these two priceless Santas. Our current tree has no greenery. Just fake and barren birch branches.

Back then all of the children (we’re a blended family of five) descended on our house Christmas Eve, had dinner, spent the night, and then left the next morning to celebrate the rest of the day with their other families … after a Christmas breakfast of waffles and strawberries, of course. I don’t know how we managed to find a place for everyone to bed down comfortably. I don’t know how we managed all those last minute trips to find stocking stuffers that weren’t complete junk, or to make sure we had enough food, enough wine, enough wrapping paper, enough tape, enough toilet paper, enough aspirin. But I do remember that feeling after all the children left and the house was quiet once again. I didn’t even mind the clean up. I’d take one task at a time, have another glass of champagne, and listen to some dumb Christmas movie on the tube.

One of the last times we were all together on Christmas. This was the best of many, many shots! The two squiggles in the front had eaten way too many Christmas cookies and could not sit still.

Would I return to those hectic days of Christmas Past? Only if I could be in my forties again and since I can’t, this Christmas Eve we’ll be sipping cocktails while watching the sun set over Moonlight Beach. Our only stress, the long drive down the coast.

Shell ornament given to my children by their globe trotting godfather. I believe he bought them (there are others) in Bangkok

In case I don’t get inspired to post again, I hope you all can spend the holidays doing something you enjoy, whether entertaining a mob or just sitting on the beach!