Oh Christmas Tree

 12/3/2020

Once the boys became adults, and had their own homes, has left me without a lot of Christmas Cheer.

When the boys were growing up, our house, and likely yours, was at it's liveliest, on the weeks and days before Santa.

Scott, from a very young age, was, and still is, the outdoor lighting king. As a teenager, he put lights all over our house. It was important to Scott that the position of each light bulb had to be in exactly the right spot. We used to joke about the face that we had so many light, we could probably be seen by planes flying over our house! Obviously, that's more of a family joke. Nets of lights graced our front yard bushes. If there was a blank space in the yard, not to worry Scott had it covered.

We had a neighbor, whose daughter grew up, and Scott would go every Sunday to have a breakfast snack with them. Of course, he noticed that there were no outside lights. Not to worry, Scott went to their house and, with great enthusiasm, brought and put up, you guess it - lights!

Stacey, DIL, does a more than outstanding job of decorating their house. Thanks to the combined effort, including Andrew and Benjamin, the three of them, have had in the past, a beautifully decked out house. Obviously, I haven't seen it this year, so I'm just using my imagination!

For years, the boys would take their presents under the tree, and put all of their gifts in the front. As far as I was concerned, they could shake and/or smell (which is kind of my thing) the presents. The "fight" for the front of the year, changed almost every day.

I lost a lot of Christmas joy, when the boys moved out. No more natural trees, no lights outside, well you get the idea.

Jeff and I do own a small tree, about two feet tall. The little tree came with lights, which no longer work. Last trip to WalMart, I bought a few new things to put on our tiny tree.

Yesterday, even though I've accomplished absolutely none of my chores. Instead, I spent a lot of time putting on new lights, a few ornaments, and the boys' favorite, a string of fake popcorn and cranberries. W and spent the time listening to Christmas carols, while attempting rather poorly, to gussy up our little tree. Our tree isn't really a "Charlie Brown" tree, but it comes close.

We own Alexa, and you can tell her to turn on different plugs. I was thrilled, when Jeff told me, that the plug I used, was able to be controlled by Alexa. This eliminates the need to grope around every evening to unplug the tree. We don't use Alexa except in the den, but she is good at her job. She tells us the weather, and does her things with the smart plugs.   

As usual, I guess you could say I'm a rut kind of gal, I have my coffee while watching a feel good holiday movie. I suppose I should start my day watching the news, but this morning, I decided that I didn't bother to watch the news, because, in general, there is very little, if any, good news to be reported. Surely, there must be something to report, that doesn't include the very sad statistics.

Our tree, doesn't look anything like the picture below. But, it does come close.

P