Traditions

When I was younger, my family would begin putting up the Christmas tree after Thanksgiving dinner. The guys would be lounging around, watching football, and taking cat naps in front the television. The rest of us would venture up the attic and haul out all the Christmas decorations. I was in charge of untangling the Christmas lights. I was pretty much the only one with the patience. Plus I loved the challenge. However, my patience is limited.

I will spend hours untangling a light strand. But if that damn thing will not light up once untangled, I am done with it. I am not about to sit there and check every stinkin' bulb to make sure they are all connected. I will just go buy a new strand. My aunt though would test each bulb. Screw that! It is better for my sanity to just go buy a new one.

Now as an adult, I try to keep some of my childhood traditions. I worked all Thanksgiving weekend but tonight I plan on putting up my Christmas tree. Of course this is going to be a HUGE challenge for me.

First of all, I have to rearrange my things to make room for my 6 foot Christmas tree. This is a HUGE pain in the ass since my apartment is pretty crammed with furniture. For those of you that don't know, I used to live in a 2 bedroom apartment. My younger sister lived with me at the time. Unfortunately she got us evicted. I was lucky enough to arrange with the complex not to list the eviction on my credit as long as I moved into a one bedroom alone. However, now my home is extremely overloaded. It is very difficult to walk through if I do not keep it clean. Rearranging my things takes skill and a lot of time.

Second of all, Oliver is no help. As I try to pull out all my Christmas decorations, he is under foot with his nosy self watching every move I make. I am tripping all over the place, trying to avoid crushing him and not break my neck at the same time. Then as I pull things out to organize he has to investigate each item by sniffing and sometimes pawing at the them. It is impossible to keep all the ornaments together when the cat is chasing them all over the place.

Finally comes erecting the tree itself. When you have a fake tree you have to separate the limbs by the color coding. Then once you begin placing the limbs in the appropriate slots, you start to fluff out the smashed up branches to make your tree appear more full and vibrant. This process can be very frustrating and tedious. And for a perfectionist like me, it can go on forever.

Last year I was sick and didn't bother with putting up the tree. Right now as I look over the process I just explained to you, I am seriously reconsidering not bothering to put it up this year either. Exhaustion outweighing tradition.

Maybe if I just blink my eyes like a genie the tree will just magically appear. Well, I can dream!!!!