A Memory of Christmas Past

Christmas is by far my favorite time of the year. I get to wear sweaters, everyone tries to be a little nicer to each other, and I get two weeks off of work. I love singing Christmas carols, and seeing the pretty lights in my neighborhood.

I always looked forward to coming home for Christmas more than any other time of year. It was like driving into a neighborhood that was a little bit cheerier than the last time I saw it, transformed over Thanksgiving weekend. I would usually get home in the early evening and be welcomed by the familiar spreads on the neighbors lawns, then finally by the lights Mom had put on the bushes and in that spikey palm tree out front.

There was one year, 2004, when all of the hurricanes went through Orlando that Mom hadn't decorated when I got home from college. There were no lights on the bushes, our stockings hadn't been hung on the banister. Life got in the way of decorating for Christmas. I spent the first week of that break repainting the dining room and kitchen, and then we decorated. Everything was put up only a few days before Christmas. We contemplated just putting up a few things, but I couldn't stand the thought of having just the tree in the dining room with no little Christmas Village houses and no snowflakes hanging from the loft to keep it company. It was almost as though Christmas couldn't happen unless the house was ready for it.

This year the house has been decorated for a few weeks already. Mom demonstrated a Christmas tea, so she put everything up a little early. This weekend, though, marked one of the first times that we plugged the lights in. Christmas just arrived!