I always thought that I would do things a certain way. Christmas is no exception. I envisioned perfect little argyle sweater clad angel children decorating the perfect Christmas tree that we picked from the best lot in town. We would make hot cocoa and beef stew and strategically place precious memory filled ornaments on each branch. But here is how it really happened.
Friday after work, I rushed to my Moms house to pick up Leah, Scott got the boys and we met at Home Depot, and there came our first balk worthy Christmas event. Yes, I bought my tree at a big box chain. I am unsure why I am so ashamed of this. I just feel like it is so wrong. As far as I know the tree was not imported from China but, it was about $20 less than we usually spend at aforementioned tree lot.
Now in my picture perfect holiday dream me and my children scout out each tree and pick out that special, tree. At home depot, I take Tyler and Leah inside because it is freezing, while Joey tells Scott that he wants “that one” as he points to each tree in the row. The trees are all netted up, so it’s a crap shoot as to what you are getting. Scott picks out “any” tree and goes to strap it to the car.
Meanwhile, I am looking at lights and I stumble across these:
I have always thought that color coordinated trees were, well stupid. In my mind ornaments are more than just tree décor, they are special Christmas memories. Every one of my ornaments has been gifted to me by my parents or grandparents and represents family and sharing the holidays together. I wouldn’t trade my hodge-podge of glorious ornaments for anything. In my very humble opinion family Christmas trees are not meant to look like they belong on display at Macy’s.
So, as I stared at that box of 100 Martha Stewart matching shatter resistant ornaments, I recoiled a bit. But then I thought SHATTER RESISTANT and it really just made sense. I threw that $30 plastic canister in my cart. I knew at that point that my Christmas vision was officially shattered.
We get home and I have nothing planned for dinner, so I throw in a frozen pizza. Later that night after the kids are in bed, Scott and I put up the tree in the living room, we hang the lights and beads we are one strand of lights short. So, we will deal with that tomorrow. We go to bed. Joey comes out in the morning and about dies. He LOVES the tree. LOVES IT. I don’t think he even cared that it was from Home Depot.
The plan had been that, Friday, we get the tree, and Saturday we decorate it - after we see Santa. Which in the land of perfect made great sense. We would go to the store in the morning and get the ingredients for Beef Stew, then we would get all dressed up and go see Santa, come home and decorate our perfect family Christmas Tree. I’d get priceless magazine worthy photographs. It would be great. But, it snowed on Friday night, so here is what actually happened.
The kids woke up and saw the snow. Scott, being the big kid in the family immediately got them all bundled up and took them out to play. They shoveled the drive way, jumped in the snow, and had an all together great time. So, scratch the trip to the grocery store and scratch getting dressed up in our perfect sweaters, it’s a snow day. And after all, this too is picture perfect.
We went and saw Santa. Joey and I practiced for days. Joey, you have to tell Santa what you want for Christmas. Okay mama, okay mama. We get there, Joey gets up on Santa’s lap and says “I want presents”. “What kind of presents?”, Santa asks. “I want toys” says Joey. Tyler wouldn’t have any of it. Leah was precious as always. The associated press was there and asked for our names, so we may be featured in our local paper. It was perfect.
We get home; have lunch and then the kids go down for naps. I head back to Home Depot to find that last strand of lights. I get home only to discover that the strand I bought has purple lights in it, and the ones that are on the tree already do not. Well, of course we can’t mix lights and we simply can’t decorate the tree until the lights are done, so Saturday goes by and the tree remains undecorated. So, Sunday will be the big day..
Sunday morning, I take the kids to my parent’s house while Scott picks up his Dad from the airport and runs some errands. Most important of said errands, find a strand of lights that does not have purple on it. Scott tries three different stores before coming home empty handed. Unsure of how to proceed, the day goes on, when all of a sudden Scott say “screw it, let’s decorate”. He opens the big plastic canister and starts putting hooks on the shatterproof ornaments. We let the kids decorate the tree. Joey in jeans and an Iron Man T-shirt, Tyler in a rugby shirt and diaper. They put ornaments on the tree. They had a great time. I have nothing planned for dinner, so I reheat some deep dish pizza from Thursday night. And our weekend was complete.
There was no tree lot, no argyle sweaters, no beef stew, no hot cocoa, no memory filled ornaments. But it was nevertheless picture perfect.
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