THE CHRISTMAS TREEEight years ago we built an "Indiana Room" on our house. I call it that because I was inspired to want this room after visiting my aunt Velva in Florida and enjoying her Florida Room so much. Our Indiana Room is knotty-pine paneled, with skylights and a cathedral ceiling. The first year the room was built, we envisioned a living tree in the room and sought out one that would reach to the ceiling. We eventually found it and enjoyed it immensely that year.
Since then, the kids have come to look forward to the "big tree on the back porch". (Call it Indiana Room if you want....to a kid it is the back porch and a Frazier Fir is just one hunkin' big tree). We always go for a 9-footer. It is always sub-freezing when it is time to put on the lights and the decorations. But when finished, the effect is always breathtaking. This year, I went solely with colored balls on the tree. I raided my mom's attic to gather balls from when I was a kid. I also found glass ornaments of animals. I don't really remember these as a kid but mom assures me they were on our tree....a dog, a deer, a cat.....totally secular Christmas ornaments for sure!! The tree is once again beautiful. It totally takes over the Indiana Room.
I asked my Grands what they thought of the tree the first time they saw it and the answer was so childlike that it made me laugh. "Mimi, that tree is just so BIG and so pretty." I have to agree. I love the smell, the grandeur and wish that I could keep it up until spring!
THE CHRISTMAS CARD
Okay, so I wasn't going to send Christmas cards this year. After all, each card (even cheap ones) cost a minimum of 42 cents to mail. Not being one to ever go cheap, my cards are always pictures of the Grands, which means adding another 9 cents or more to each card. On top of that, my returns have been diminishing in the past few years. Oh yeah, I keep track.....I have a book. It tells me who I get cards from each year.
But, this past year I decided to forget cards. First of all, it had been a bummer of a year (and you all know what I mean). I couldn't write an upbeat little family note about how wonderful everything had been in 2008 because it hadn't been wonderful at all. It had been stressful, heartbreaking and taxing. If it weren't for Beringer's Pino Grigio, I wouldn't have survived. On top of that, my Hallmark program that I used for addresses crashed in mid-June. Yet another good reason to ditch the Christmas card effort this year. I blog. I could send Christmas wishes via blog....except I don't have everyone's e-mail address that I send cards to. Some....many, do not have e-mail addresses because they were born pre-electronic era.
I finally decided about mid-November to send out a few cards this year. I asked my daughter for her wedding address list, which had been my address list six years ago. It was then that my mind was changed. At least 20 people on that list had either moved and left no forwarding address (to us anyways) ....died....divorced...and were no longer a part of our lives. These were people we loved enough to invite to our daughter's wedding and now.....kaput....I hadn't heard from them in years.
The realization that people whom I thought were important enough to be a part of such a special day as our daughter's wedding had simply vanished from our lives, prompted me to reinstitute the Christmas Card List. Forget that half of the ones I send will go to people who never send to me, or never send cards. I don't care. Life is just too short to not send greetings once a year to those you know and love. Of course, many of my email friends won't get a snail mail. But many others will. I don't think they will care one way or the other. They know they are a part of my life and I love them.
As I put pictures of my Grands in card after card, and write a little note here or there, my idea of what Christmas is all about returns to me. For Becki anyway, Christmas isn't about all the presents. It is about the month of December being the one time of the year that I take the time to enjoy all those around me. Granted, I should be doing this all year long, but practicality being what it is, I simply do what has to be done the other eleven months of the year. In December, I wax nostalgic. I cry at Folger Coffee commercials when the soldier is waiting on the stairsteps for his folks to awaken on Christmas Day.....I go to grade school programs and enjoy every chorus of offkey singing....I lovingly wrap each present and envision how it will be received....the kids saying "It's just what I've always wanted" and the adults thinking, "How did she know what I wanted, or Good God! not knitted houseslippers again!"
I have nearly 80 cards to get stamped in the next few days. If you get one it is because you were on the mailing list for Kitty's wedding or else you have an address so easy to remember that I could guesstimate what it was and put it on the card.
Come January, when I am putting my cards from this year up for the next, I will count them as I always do. It makes me feel validated to have lots of cards. If I don't have as many this year as in year's past, then I will know that e-mail has taken over. Next year, I may try to use e-mail only. But for this year, the picture of my darling Grands will have to suffice as our greetings to all of you! And, for me anyway, a tradition of traipsing to the post office with a sackful of cards will be honored for one more year at least.
