Christmas Decorating 2021

On Sunday we put up our Christmas tree! Rob came home with the tree that afternoon. It was a nice, tall, straight tree with a perfect pyramid shape, but when we got it in the stand we noticed that its bottom branches had lost most of their needles.

“Well, I guess I didn’t go a very good job with the tree,” Rob said mournfully as he gazed at the carpet of needles on the floor.

“No, it’s a great tree,” I assured him. “We’ll just put some extra garland at the bottom. Garland disguises all manner of problems.”

We set the tree up in the back hall, then took a festive trip to the Quincy Walgreens to buy some more lights. On the way there we admired our neighbors’ porches festooned with red ribbon and greenery, and then in the store we had fun getting tempted by all the Christmas candy and other delights in the holiday aisle.

Once we were home again I started putting the new lights on the tree, and Buntin, our cute, complicated tortie, started playing with the twisty ties I had tossed on the floor when I unboxed them.

“Oh, Buntin’s so playful!” Rob said. “She loves Christmas!”

Soon more cats got involved in the tree trimming. As I was wrapping the tree in our charmingly shabby silver garland, June grabbed a length of it and began unwrapping the tree. A few minutes later, after I’d started in on hanging the ornaments, Rob reported from the kitchen, “I think Frankie stole an ornament and is playing with it in here!”

At this point, Rob was partly helping with the tree and partly eating snacks and watching football.

I kept working. I have a ton of ornaments. Christmas ornaments were some of my very first purchases as a working adult. I owned ornaments before I owned pretty much anything else! I just love them. Most of my ornaments are toy-like. I also have a collection of actual toys that I like to arrange under and in the tree.

The tree was missing a few branches on one side, so I said, “I need to find a toy to sit in this hole and fill it up with cuteness.”

Rob rummaged through the box containing my toy collection and dug up Pompompurin, a Sanrio character, a chubby yellow puppy sporting sunglasses. He said, “Little Pompompurin says, ‘This could be my time to shine!'”

I found a doll-size pillow and made Pompompurin a comfy little seat on a branch. When I got him positioned on the pillow, Rob said, “Okay, now that is just ridiculous.” He meant ridiculously cute!

It took me six hours to put all the ornaments on the tree. After a while Rob gave up any pretense of helping—and who could blame him? I was listening to Christmas music as I worked, but then the songs started getting a little repetitive. Luckily my sister Kris called me at around 8, so I talked on the phone and hung ornaments with one hand.

Kris had just returned from a trip to Tennessee. She’d taken my 18-year-old nephew, Jake, to visit the University of Memphis and audition for acceptance to the music program there. He got in! The whole family is so excited. On the phone Kris was telling me all about the audition. Jake wore a wine-red velvet jacket and performed “Amarillo by Morning,” singing and playing the guitar.

Pompompurin on his little perch:

I made the deer ornament in 2020, and Mom made the lace angel in the ’90s.

You can’t be sad if you surround yourself with Sanrio characters!