Christmas tree – Stained Glass Butterfly

We had a busy, festive weekend planned: more Christmas lights, a special shopping event, a mini road trip. How cheery and fun, right?

Except after my work Christmas party, more shopping, more wrapping, looking up recipes, and a never-ending to-do list that keeps growing, it just felt overwhelming. Well, guess what? There’s no federal law that requires us to attend every holiday event that comes our way. I thought about it and decided we would exercise our right to say “no”.

So we did just that. With one simple word, my husband and I cleared our calendar for the entire weekend. It was a rainy, chilly weekend, and we thoroughly enjoyed hibernating inside together. Just relaxing with a book and reading more than a few sentences is a luxury these days, and I loved every minute, listening to the rain until I got sleepy.

We ventured out for a low-key date night, and I ended up buying yet another roll of Christmas wrapping paper, something we absolutely do not need. We have enough Christmas paper to wrap presents for the next 50 years. But it was pretty, and instead of reminding me that we had more than enough already, my husband laughed and told me, “Go ahead and get it.” And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why we have roughly 6,000 rolls of wrapping paper in the closet!

Last night, with the Christmas tree lights and mantle lights peacefully glowing and twinkling, I was grateful we shifted gears at the last minute and had a quiet, cozy weekend instead of running around all over the place. Those two days flew by at breakneck speed, of course, and it’s back to the hustle today. We are expecting no less than five packages in the mail today, some last minute Christmas gifts…so it looks like I have a hot date with those 6,000 rolls of Christmas wrapping paper!

A rainy December weekend is the perfect chance to put up the Christmas tree! It’s quite the undertaking in our house. We take our tree very seriously.

We pulled down boxes of ornaments from shelves and got to work. It takes a while, because we don’t have any of those pre-packaged boxes of matched ornament sets. No, our ornaments have been collected over the past 17 years together, plus ornaments from my husband’s mom, as well as ornaments we had before we got married and joined decorating forces.

One example is an ornament I made in sewing class in high school. It’s a teddy bear wearing a Santa hat, and while I believe it is a fine piece of impeccable stitchery, my little brother joked long ago that it bears a stronger resemblance to a dog than a teddy bear. (My husband agrees). What do they expect from a bear who is at least 30 years old?

Each ornament is wrapped in bubble wrap or tissue paper in several boxes, and they are unwrapped one at a time and placed on the tree. It’s fun unwrapping them, not knowing which one it is at first. I hand him the ornaments from his mom so he can have the honor of deciding their places on our tree. I have ornaments from my mom that make me want to smile and cry at the same time. I trust that, over time, it will gradually be more smile than cry.

We have ornaments that each of the kids picked out way back when my husband and I first met. I still remember being at the store, watching the kids circle multiple Christmas trees and select their own ornament. They were so small back then.

When we travel, we have started picking up ornaments where we can, like one we got at the beach this past summer. It’s been waiting patiently on a shelf for its turn on the tree. We have personalized ornaments from the zoo, and we still laugh at our inside joke about me accidentally calling a hippo ornament a rhino (hey, in my defense, they were carved out of wood and a bit indistinct).

One year, I had the idea to buy a bunch of tiny red bows and attach them to the ends of the Christmas tree branches. My husband loved it and said the tree looks so beautiful with the red bows, so it’s become part of the decorating tradition. The original bows are slowly wearing out and falling apart, so I have bought more to replace them as the old ones are retired. It takes forever to place them on the tree, but he’s right: it’s so damn pretty when they are all on the tree.

When we finished our tree yesterday and turned on the lights, we just stood in front of it for a moment, admiring it. I’m glad we put it up early enough to have a few weeks to enjoy it. I am already looking forward to many evenings of snuggling in the living room with my husband, the only light in the room being the gentle glow from the tree…and debating where we can possibly fit another ornament!