Jesus and Barbie and Trees. Oh my!

Good! We've got the tree up, 2 candles burning (today is the 2nd Advent)
eat home-made cookies (by Grandma), drink tea, and do lots of other christmas stuff. It's not so much about Jesus and God, it is all about tradition.

I so fondly remember the traditional things we did on holidays and
the comfort of it which I try to convey to my child now, and she likes it.
For the past four years we've gone to see the "Grinch" in our local theater
and little Jane reminded me already in October to buy tickets for
the play, as it is part of our christmas tradition now.

I can't possibly help, so I'll just wave.

We got our first tree this year too. Hubby is like Mr. B about religion. But the kids enjoy the lights and the decorations so he caved and we have the ugliest fake little tree, covered with all kinds of gaudy ornaments that were hand picked and placed on the tree by the kids themselves. What fun! I love all the lights at this time of year -- it makes the cold weather so much less depressing.

Church was pretty cool. Three of the she-hooligans were in the program and the school secretary turned out to be the pageant director so we really knew a lot of people there.

It was splendidly goofy and fun in the way only a pageant starring children can be. Mo enjoyed and behaved himself even though he really decided HE wanted to be singing on stage and I had to dissuade him from joining in. That, coupled with guitar fever makes me reminisce about many an old boyfriend and shake my head with disbelief and anxiety about my, and his, future.

The tree is a garish monstrosity in the best possible way. The only ornaments I have are huge. I mean HUGE. The smallest, the cantelope sized things, were selected since the largest are a quite a bit bigger than soccer balls. Not for the faint of heart are my ornaments. In addition we have several last minute purchases. I was lucky to find some red and tan wooden bead strings and candy canes. Along with the lights the effect is rather pleasing in an odd, slap-dash sort of way. It must be noted that the tree smells divine and I'm enjoying that despite the fir scented air that hoovers all over the state beginning just outside my front door.

The only gift I have purchased "from me and Mr. B" is the guitar, I fear it will feel a little lonely under the tree as most of the booty is from Santa and won't appear until Christmas morning. Perhaps I shall reevaluate the quantity of nonsense Santa is bringing so things appear a bit more festive. Plus, I ordered like a hundred bucks of that damn school fund-raiser gift wrap and I have to do something with it.

This year the holidays feel like puberty - all uncommon but exciting and full of portent.

Boomer, I love the description of your tree. My ex and I agreed that Christmas wasn't the same after our sons got too old to be really excited by the whole thing.

You might know that I am pretty much against organized religions, but with you and Mr. B, I feel confident that Mo will have a very well-rounded religious education. I get a little freaked out because I have so many relatives that have been horribly brain-washed.

Anyway, Christmans is great fun with kids--the wackier the tree the better--the crazier the gifts the better! Have a very, very merry Christmas.

For under the tree, I used to buy very inexpensive little gifts in order to make things look more festive. Please post pics!

I'm trying to meld B's ideas on how to celebrate the holiday w/my own ideas. It's not going so great, but perhaps that's b/c we\are old and somewhat inflexible... The good news is there is only 15 more days to Xmas, then 6 more to New Years Day, then 6 more to the Epiphany, then we make it through another holiday season...

Our tree is indeed "the most beautiful tree in the whole world" designed to "just make Santa scream" (I can only suppose the screaming will be in delight). It is so beatiful that even "our wreck of a house" looks okay now.

I am unsure of when they will be delivering our trophy.

I'm no fan of organized religion but I do feel that kids need to be introduced to the concepts behind faith and belief. If kids at school are talking about Jesus (and they are) then Mo needs to know who Jesus is. Jesus is cool whether as a real person or a concept. I like the things he stood for. I've got no problem with the idea of Jesus showing up in my house.

Plus, if I hadn't taken Mo to church I know the whole Barbie thing would have come up and he would bewilder everyone with saying he couldn't face going because of all the Barbie action.

Jesus is welcome but Barbie had better keep her distance.

We're old and set in our ways too but the will of a five year old will not be denied.

Consider papier mache'ing a bathroom... my kids quit selling that gift wrap in 1989 and I still have some left.

We don't have our tree yet. It started raining and yuck... nobody wanted to go out. This week, for sure, we'll get it, or rather them. I think I'll have one full-sized and two small trees. I like that look, each tree a little different and the living room a pseudo-forest with cedar above all the windows and one corner dark with evergreens. I'm going to check the back-forty and see if there are any likely firs needing to be sacrificed.


What kind of tree can handle soccerball-sized ornaments?

No kidding about wallpapering a room!

I wrapped up nearly every present, five medium sized gifts, today and didn't get through one whole roll! Luckily I ordered some non-holiday type papers too. They're really very nice paper. I was surprised at the quality. They're printed on both sides and that's kind of groovy in an oragami way.

I'm no longer worried about making sure there are wrapped gifts under the tree as King Knucklehead the Impatient was having absolute fits. When I came in from folding laundry and saw his bedroom door closed I knew something was up. Sure enough he had opened one of his gifts -- the Heelies (roller skate shoes) he's been dying for. Amazingly he handed them right over without complaint as I rounded up all the wrapped gifts and trotted them out to the garage for hiding. Weird. I expected tears.

The whole "satisfaction brought him back" half of the "curiosity killed the cat" equation seems to be in effect.

The soccer ball sized ornaments started their life as studio decorations/props back in the old photo studio days. They really are gorgeous things. Last year they were hung from our 60 foot pine tree in the front yard. This year.....? They may retire for the year. They deserve a rest. And, our house really is a wreck due to a ssssslllllooooowwwww remodeling project.

Christmas cards from Mo's bio-family addressed to him in his old last name didn't even get under my skin today. That, after angsting about "Have they been told? Do I tell them? Who should tell them?" and finally getting the never up (thanks dlowan) to say "Did mOther tell you.....?" and the resulting fallout and it's attendant furies.

Ho ho ho indeed.

Is the "just make Santa scream" quote a Mo-ism? It's great, anyway.

It all sounds like so much fun! I don't plan on having kids, but at Christmastime I always think about possibly renting some...they do make the holidays so much more jolly.

Boomer said:




You're quite a gal. There are just a few people I'd like to be like in my next life, or at least take lessons from--you are one of them.

Opening up a present beforehand? That's a priceless memory of childhood, Boomerang. You should embrace it. Put those presents back under the tree! It shows Mo, psychologically I think, that he had a need to know you loved him enough to get him what he wanted (not some stinkin' pj's). Once he saw that you did, he could relax and let them go, knowing he'd see them again. (What do you think of my analysis?)

It's true, kids do make it fun... but I've noticed quite a few oldsters who become <ahem> like children again.

We play "The Game" where all the wacky presents can come out. It's a dice game and you have to ante up a wrapped present to play. The more white-elephant-ish... the better. If anybody could find one of those sexy-leg lamps from The Christmas Story, they'd be crowned King (or Queen) of Misrule.

I'm done with my shopping. Now it's all wrap, wrap, wrap, wrap, wrap. I've been avoiding this in every possible way, but they're spilling out of my cupboards. I have to wrap five for a get-together tonight. My Jungian Dream group exchanges gifts, can you believe it?

What I can't believe is that there is a Jungian dream group much less that they exchange gifts.

I didn't intend to have kids either, cyphercat. Be careful who you open your door to. Really though, I'm the luckiest girl in the world to have Mo.

You are way too nice, Diane. Thank you for the lovely complement. I'm going to put it in my pocket and carry it around for a while.

Honestly, I could totally rant on the card-senders. They hated Mo's father so much that they threw their pregnant, teenage grand-daughter out on the street to live in a car rather than accept him and now they seem to prefer his last name to mine (and Mo's). I could hate them but if they hadn't been such idiots I probably wouldn't have Mo as a son so really I guess I like them for being idiots even though the way they treated Mo's mOther is unforgivable.

I know about that childhood memory thing. One of my favorite childhood memories is catching my uber-rule abiding brother under the dining room table playing with a tape recorder surrounded by carefully peeled off wrapping paper weeks before Christmas.

If your analysis is correct I'm glad he opened the Heelies because the other packages contained an amplifier and a tuner and a strap for the yet unwrapped guitar. He would have had no idea what those things were for. I swore him to secrecy about opening the gift and we're having fun with that in and of itself. He whispers to me "I can't wait to open my Heelies again. Thank you for getting them for me." I'm getting so many hugs and kisses out of this deal that it is totally worth it.

Wrapping paper fundraisers are global, who knew. (We have that stuff too. Innisbrook?)

Haven't gotten the tree yet. We haven't really established a tradition of when to get it. Last year we did a bunch of December traveling and didn't want to get it beforehand (I like to keep them fresh and fragrant as long as possible) and then with this and that I didn't go until the Monday before Christmas, maybe 4 or 5 days, and they'd done their last big selling push that weekend and they had these amazing, huge, fresh, wonderful trees for crazy-cheap (I'm thinking $10, can't remember for sure). So that's awfully tempting, I'd like to try to do that again (last year's tree was sooooo gorgeous), but I don't know if I actually want to wait that long.

We do trees every year though and have ornaments going back to E.G.'s an my childhoods, cool because we have a bunch of complimentary/ matching ornaments. The same little plastic Santa in respective home-made surroundings, etc.

Right now all I have is outdoor stuff (wreaths, garlands), and some little live white pines in my urns. Not sure what I'll do with them after Christmas. Some miscellaneous greenery inside, have a pine rope in the garage I'll probably bring in today.

I know what you mean! Here, if you wait you can get trees for just a few bucks. We probably should have waited a bit because Mr. B is still grumbling about paying $40 for a tree he "had" to cut down himself. I reminded him that you pay extra for the experience of searching out your own tree in the beautiful Oregon countryside, that it's good for the local economy, and that if he doesn't shut up about it I'm going to go get another one.

Mo is a man-to-be who prefers to be on the powerful side of secrets.

As for apples not falling far from the tree, Mo's blood family dropped the apple, it rolled and rolled and fortunately was recovered and treasured by someone who deserves him.

A ten-mile distance from that tree is just about where Mo belongs.

I found one the other day while doing my online Christmas shopping...Okay, I'm editing to take away the name of the place I saw it-- I should think it would spoil the fun if someone else told you where to get it!

That is one tree that I would happily allow Mo to roll away from. It is positively toxic.

But, of course, Auntie T wants to be sure that he knows his great grandparents.

Yaddayaddayadda.

A rather exotic package arrived today from my brother in Korea. All of the marvelous customs tags and shipping lables makes it a huge temptation. The fact that Mo adores his Uncle J makes it unbearably tempting. He looks at the package mournfully. He shakes it. He sniffs it. It's downright hilarous.

I finally distracted him with sticking cloves into an orange and now my house smells like heaven.

My family would have a blast with that wacky gift game. I would wrap each brother and sister a jar of bacon grease. They would laugh to the point of making my mother barricade herself in the bathroom.