Digressions: My Life in 500 Words or Less
It snowed late Friday evening, as it turned into early Saturday morning. And it was fitting.
At least, it was for me.
You see, while many do not want to even think about Christmas until Thanksgiving is over, I don’t wait that long. Rebecca and I start our yuletide decorating the day after Halloween or as soon thereafter as possible. This year, we had put up a smaller tree the day after Halloween. Two days later we put up our two biggest trees.
We didn’t get ornaments on the two biggest trees at the time because we had to work out some lighting issues. Those issues got resolved — mostly — by this past weekend. On Friday night Rebecca and I put ornaments on the largest of the trees while listening to Christmas music. Earlier that evening we had put up tree number four, this one a pre-lighted fiber optic version that constantly changed colors.
By the time we finished doing our Christmas decorating Friday it was about time to call it a night. Rebecca was soon asleep, but I was still awake, browsing Facebook on my laptop. It was then I saw the post that announced it was snowing in Elizabethtown.
What happened after I read that post felt like part of a famous Christmas poem: “I sprang from the bed” and “away to the window, I flew like a flash.” Against the light of the lamppost in our front yard I saw them, tiny snowflakes falling sporadically.
Awesome! Yeah, I like snow. And even though, in the end, it didn’t last but a few minutes and resulted in only a sparse dusting, the snow was just one more element that helped me feel the holiday spirit.
That’s the bottom line for me: getting into the holiday spirit in time for the holidays. If I left the Christmas decorations packed away until after Thanksgiving — or even mid-November — I would not have enough time to get in the proper holiday spirit. I know this for a fact because I’ve had the experience, and it was not pretty.
Everyone has their own timeline for decorating and enjoying the holidays, and this is mine. So I do what I can to encourage the spirit of this time of year, the season of giving thanks and of celebrating goodwill.
That’s what made the smattering of snow so special. It arrived on a night I felt the holiday spirit arrive. It arrived as I listened to Christmas music, hung ornaments with my sweetheart, Rebecca, and watched my Pomeranians, Tybalt and Zorro, crawl under the tree to curl up in the skirt.
Others might have denounced the snow and might wait until after Thanksgiving to decorate, but for me it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas. And I couldn’t be happier about it.
