I've written before about the time TRQ forgot to take the Christmas tree down. It stood in the corner of our living room, going full Charlie Brown on us--shedding its needles and dropping its ornaments onto the floor below where they (the ornaments) rolled around on the carpet like a thirteen year-old boy's brains.
In retrospect, I think TRQ was possibly clinically depressed, but at the time I was mortified. All my friends' Christmas trees had been properly dealt with weeks before--ornaments in boxes, tree on the curb. But not our tree. It just hung around, slouching and embarrassing me in front of my friends like a crazy old uncle in mismatched carpet slippers.
Maybe it was in response to this that I used to get my tree down in a hurry--often a day or two after Christmas. And (I also think) getting my tree down was a way to impose order on a chaotic household full of kids and dogs who used to crawl up on the table and eat birthday cake. The dogs, not the kids. I know this because we have a video of one of them doing that. Except that's not what the video was about at the time. No oneeven noticed the dog photobombing the video. And also eating the cake.
But whatever.
The point is this: my tree is still up even though we are well into the first week of the new year. And I don't think it'll come down this weekend either. It's still remarkably fresh and it smells good. It's also pretty and shiny, which comforts me at night.
I've changed, people.
Shine on, Christmas tree.
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2 comments:
You KNOW I love this. I just flicked on the Christmas tree lights at my own house. And last night, I talked with my oldest friend whilst lying upon the sofa in the glow of the Christmas tree lights. My plan is not to wait until February to take it down. That is all.
One year our very young Relief Society presidency decided that we needed to have a monthly RS goal, suggested by said presidency. January's goal (inspired by one counselor) was to get the Christmas tree and decorations down promptly. In February I bore my testimony of not getting my tree down until February. I'm contrary like that. It wasn't for the lovely reasons you have. It was because I had five children at home, including one with a January birthday, and I was in school. Sometimes you just have to realize that these things don't make it to the top of the list until later, and letting that be is the accomplishment that deserves celebration.
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