Decoration Days

It's about 6:30 on Christmas Eve and Linda and I are following our holiday tradition and having a drink as we watch television. Oh, wait a minute, that's what we do every night.

But tonight our daily habit has a holiday theme because we're watching some special called "Extreme Christmas". It's about people who decorate their houses for Christmas and don't stop until they've created a cross between Disneyland and New Orleans' French Quarter at Mardi Gras. One idiot runs so many lights that he needs generators with enough power for 80 homes.

While we never got into outdoor lighting, we used to decorate a lot at Christmas. But we got out of the habit because we started taking trips overseas during the Christmas holidays. Putting up a tree for three days was just way too much trouble.

But we're staying home this year so Linda went for it. She spent the better part of a day doing a wonderful job of decorating the tree. We put the tree upstairs because we got rid of our old television and speakers and there was this wonderful space where the tree fit perfectly, and we could anticipate that all of us would sit around while opening gifts.

Regrettably not all logical decisions yield perfect results. Those with good analytical skills will have recognized that the room where the tree is now has no TV or sound system. So, while the tree is pretty, there's not much to do up there except read a book and look at the tree. Even Linda chose not to go up there when I suggested it the other night, noting there wasn't anything to do.

I don't want her to feel like she wasted her time decorating the tree, so every night when we go up to bed I have started singing O Tannenbaum. It got old by the second time I did it, but I continue to do it each night to show my deep appreciation for all the work that went the tree that has so few people around it that philosophers would debate whether it would make a noise if it fell over.

We had friends over for lunch yesterday, and I noticed that Linda worked her way around to bringing Coralee upstairs ostensibly to show her some handbags. But I can't help but wonder if there wasn't a bit of strategy in bringing the handbags out right in front of the tree. And by the way, that's not a criticism. If I had spent all that time decorating that tree, I would have insisted on all of us having lunch in front of it, and I would have absolutely insisted that everyone had to pee in the upstairs loo just to make sure they walked by the tree.

But no matter. Tomorrow morning, Lily is coming over for her presents. Linda has set the star aside and will have Lily put it on the tree. And even if we all only spend the time when Lily opens her gifts, that tree will have been well worth the effort because we will remember that with such fondness.

In the meantime, if anyone knows the second line to O Tannenbaum, could you please email me. I think it's getting very tedious to Linda to hear me singing "O Tannenbaum! O Tannebaum! Da da da dum, da da dee dee."