I glance out the car window at the tree strapped to the roof. "Well, that was pretty easy."
"Yep. I think we're set now." In the rear view mirror a pile of small fir branches are waving around, awaiting wreathage at home.
"We still need mistletoe."
"Right."
The kid pipes up from the backseat. "What's mistletoe?"
"A parasitic plant."
"Sucks the life out of trees."
"Poisonous."
"Probably full of narguls."
"The ancient druids nailed it to the doors of newly-weds to increase fertility."
The kid blinks at us with wide eyes, shakes his head, and switches gears. "Why do ladybugs like roses?"
http://swingbug.net/sites/swingbug.net/files/Weasley2_0.jpgAnd so this is Christmas. We spent the week decking the halls, so to speak. Shining stars from the highest bough and such. Luke arranged the tiny sheep and cows so that they all got a good view of the baby in the manager and Shawn and I hunted out the bad lights in the strings going around the tree. We all hung up the ornaments made of painted macaroni and popsicle sticks. The cat seems to think this is the weirdest thing we've done since he's taken up residence with us, but he doesn't seem all together opposed to it. There are lights on the house and eggnog in the fridge. Welcome Christmas, bring your cheer.
I feel like I have the holidays pretty well in hand this year. Santa's elves still owe me a few UPS packages but mostly we're on good schedule. It's been very calm and bright.
http://swingbug.net/sites/swingbug.net/files/BlueChristmas.jpgWe've done some Christmas crafting too. Prowling a hobby store with Luke early in December, we found empty snow globes awaiting filling. We picked up tiny trees and festive filling, and went home to begin the sanding and the gluing and shellacking. Add the glitter and the thickener and give it a whirl. Apparently we bought the wrong glue. And entirely the wrong sort of tree. The glitter floats, the forests are adrift, and our little winter wonderlands are having a very blue blue blue Christmas. We all had a good giggle about it and put them up on the mantle with candles and the nutcracker. You keep your Christmas of white.
I did most the wrapping this weekend. I love wrapping, something that I recently realized I'm fairly alone in. I love finding the right box and sorting through the trimmings and trappings. I have a very distinct early memory of my mother teaching me the proper way to curl ribbon.
And truly, this holiday is pretty well wrapped up. I showed up to a couple of pot-lucks and now the parties are done. I might bake some cookies. Now it's really just down to waiting for the man with the bag. Christmas is here again.
