This weather in our typically predictable college town is insane these days. I mean the kind of weather that will make you a believer in global warming if you're not careful. Record highs! Driving with the windows down! Riverwalks and backyard shenanigans and tricycle rides for days! Last night Jace told me, "We can't watch a Christmas movie because there's no snow outside mom." The kid's logic is pretty sound, I mean it just doesn't feel right.
Even without snow we have still been playing classical christmas music at all hours of the day and watching way too much of elf. (only, there's no such thing as way too much elf watching, amirite?) And I did put up a few christmas decorations. I thought about putting all of them up but first of all, the last christmas box is the biggest one and it's alllllll the way back on the storage shelf in the garage, so come on! and secondly, I'm in a very unadorned spirit this year. I truly believe in simplicity in all aspects of life, especially decorating, and even more especially for holiday decorating. I get a tad claustrophobic with clusters of decorations in every corner, doesn't it make it hard to breathe sometimes? I find pure happiness in simple and slightly elegant. (is there such thing as just slightly elegant? I like to think so. Because there's most definitely such a thing as much too elegant when it comes to decorating.) A swirl of evergreen wrapped around a curtain rod, a wooden deer on a wall shelf, a few classic candles placed just so. And then the tree, of course, which ours isn't exactly classy because I let my three year old decorate it this year. But every time I look at that tree with it's uneven arrangement of ornaments (it's a tad bottom-heavy, as you can imagine) my heart swells with pride. I've never loved an unevenly decorated christmas tree more.
There is a wooden red-painted nutcracker set on a wall shelf next to some lovely silver candles in the living room who is quickly becoming a favorite in our home. Jace climbs a chair and reaches to pick him up, and I hear him quietly reminding himself out loud, "I being very careful!", while he grips that nutcracker tightly and totes him around the house. The other night I overheard a conversation the nutcracker was having with a hotwheels truck that went something like this:
"Oh hello! Who are you?"
"Aw, I'm just the cracker man. I'm your friend!"
And they went on to have a lovely dinner at the garage where the other "car friends" were parked. It was so very nice of those cars to be so friendly with the new guy in town.
Speaking of trees. The hubs and I are the boring sort that buy a pre-lit plastic tree on an after christmas sale one year and continue to use said tree every christmas. We pull it out of a large cardboard box in three separate pieces, where we easily connect them together in their designated order, fluff out the branches, pour green waxy pine scented beads in the warmers en lieu of that real tree smell and plug her in. How terribly unromantic is that?! I'll tell you how: it's terribly unromantic. But also, stringing hundreds of strands of lights on the christmas tree for DAYS, amirite?! These are monumental life decisions that we have to weigh out the odds for and in our case, the odds weighed heavily in favor of the words PRE-LIT.
However. If you must know. Yesterday, on a thrilling whim, I was *THIS CLOSE* to snatching a beautiful hunk of a christmas tree that was sitting outside of the marketplace. It was love at first sight, and I still can't stop thinking about him! He was shorter than average, but oh so full and shapely, just a perfectly round gent. And he bore those soft pine needles, not the awful pokey ones. I could picture him in the forest. He wouldn't be surrounded by those massive thick pines that reached the sky and stood uniformed together in perfect rows, the popular trees that like to steal the show. No, he would be in a patch down the way, sprinkled in white powdered snow, surrounded by a few of his friends on uneven ground, all different sizes and thicknesses. He would be the kind one. He was perfect. And had I had any sort of idea how I would transfer him home by myself, well I'm just sure my spontaneous side would have won.
Only, also, the clean up! The crispy pine needles all over the floor! Not forgetting to water! The tree dying and browning two days before christmas! Getting rid of the tree after he's dead! Don't all of these things play a huge role in your decision too? Perhaps I need to be more adventurous about the whole christmas tree ordeal.
(also to be noted: if ever there is a box that says "puppies for sale!" outside of the
market, I turn around and drive straight home. as you can imagine. i fall in love much to easily, it's such a burden!)
Moving on, some iphone pictures of life lately coming at you in THREE, TWO, ONE...
And I hope your thursday night is as relaxed as mine. This week I have been in dire need of a relaxing night. I'm either going to go to bed early or stay up and watch That Thing You Do! I'll have to flip a coin. (how exciting is my life, really?! also, it has recently come to my attention that I watch entirely too many tom hanks movies.)
xoxo
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I just love your style of writing, you have such a way with words. It makes me smile :). And no, there is most definitely no such thing as too much Elf!!
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