Decking the Halls

Today The Librarian (aka my mom) and I decorated the house for Christmas.  We have been dragging our feet in the hopes that by the time we got around to it, there would be a pristine blanket of white outside, but alas, winter in Mid-Michigan remains M.I.A.  However, with the aid of our Pandora Christmas Station, we managed to get into the spirit and trim the tree.

First order of business, make sure the lights all work.

After the grueling task of yanking out dead bulbs, rummaging through the 30 year old brown paper bag full of "Colored 'Ho-Ho' Lights" (scrawled upon it in my dad's handwriting) and finding replacement bulbs, Christmas Tree 2011 at last glimmered cheerily from the corner.

After the annual light bulb battle, it was finally time to adorn the tree in our favorite ornaments.  In my 24 years on this planet and my sister's 27, we have accumulated roughly enough ornaments to decorate a small woodland grove.  Each year of our respective childhoods, we received an ornament from my Grandma Springsteen, which was always a fun and exciting tradition.  I have lots of favorites, and as the collection has grown, it has gotten harder and harder to choose.  This year, I had to be fair and represent Sister, too, as she is currently soaking up the sun in the Gulf of Mexico, working on a schooner.  I was pretty fair...she has one or two ornaments on the tree.

All in all, absent Sister and absent snow aside, it was a festive day, and the house looks beautiful.

And one of me doing something, for good measure.

You know, it's hard to admit that you had to move back in with your mom because you're jobless, moneyless, carless, and unexpectedly single.  That said, days like today make it feel like the most natural thing in the world to be back here.  'Tis the season to love, cherish, and heal.  I may be a bit of a sap, but looking at our Christmas tree (no pun intended) does fill me with a sense of inner peace.  By the way, imagine The Peanuts Christmas music is playing in the background, and that whole paragraph goes from being a little bit cheesy to completely moving.  Try it.  It works.

Christmastime is here...happiness and cheer...