Grinch no more.
Saturday, mr.jack and I visited our dear friends Chris and Jenny at her house. (Yes, she owns and yes, I'm jealous, but that's beside the point.) The reason for our post-Thanksgiving visit was to put together her Christmas tree. Jenny is quite the holiday aficionado and where Christmas is concerned she's zealous, which I think is quite necessary when your mother owns a Hallmark shop. Needless to say she’s got all those cool Hallmark ornaments that I love to look at and other Hallmark paraphernalia that’s cute, detailed, and practically emits happy light.
Configuring the tree was pretty quick and painless with Chris and me taking on most of it while Jenny and mr.jack made lunch in the kitchen. Befitting any Hallmark ad the tree was finished almost exactly the same time as the tree so we all sat down to eat together. By this point, I’m starting to even get a bit excited about the pending decorating. But what happened next made me feel just like the grinch after he experiences the joy of Who-ville and has his heart grow 2x bigger.
Let me clarify, I’m not a grinch about the holiday but after years of having “themes” for the holiday in OK, I’ve become jaded by the lack of sentimentality of it all. I enjoy the early days of having crappy paper ornaments and macaroni streamers mixed in with the nicer ornaments. When something I made in Mrs. Gerlt’s class in 3rd grade was just as important as something my mother bought in the store. This desire to embrace family instead of perfection has lead me to the farthest swing of the holiday pendulum where I’d just as well do nothing than give in, but Jenny redeemed from a life of Scrooge-ness.
It was something about the care that she gave to every ornament. Each one regardless of cost or her theme (a cute moon and stars thing) received the same care and devotion. Each cradled in wrapping paper and placed gently in a spot to rest before being deployed to the tree. She even remembered each ornament’s ancestry and shared lovely family stories about when she made this one or who she received this one from and in what year. I found that her tree while completed with store bought beauties was more like a photo album instead of a tree that held memories more precious than anything you could capture in a tear-jerking Hallmark ad. I was so touched by her care and love for everything I really wished that I was part of her tree and that I had some lovely contribution to add.
So I gleefully announce the holidays are here and I’ll embrace them whole-heartedly this year as I make mr.jack and I a lovely little tree and a lovely little holiday. My thanks to Jenny for giving me Christmas CPR, you have no idea how much I needed it.
Configuring the tree was pretty quick and painless with Chris and me taking on most of it while Jenny and mr.jack made lunch in the kitchen. Befitting any Hallmark ad the tree was finished almost exactly the same time as the tree so we all sat down to eat together. By this point, I’m starting to even get a bit excited about the pending decorating. But what happened next made me feel just like the grinch after he experiences the joy of Who-ville and has his heart grow 2x bigger.
Let me clarify, I’m not a grinch about the holiday but after years of having “themes” for the holiday in OK, I’ve become jaded by the lack of sentimentality of it all. I enjoy the early days of having crappy paper ornaments and macaroni streamers mixed in with the nicer ornaments. When something I made in Mrs. Gerlt’s class in 3rd grade was just as important as something my mother bought in the store. This desire to embrace family instead of perfection has lead me to the farthest swing of the holiday pendulum where I’d just as well do nothing than give in, but Jenny redeemed from a life of Scrooge-ness.
It was something about the care that she gave to every ornament. Each one regardless of cost or her theme (a cute moon and stars thing) received the same care and devotion. Each cradled in wrapping paper and placed gently in a spot to rest before being deployed to the tree. She even remembered each ornament’s ancestry and shared lovely family stories about when she made this one or who she received this one from and in what year. I found that her tree while completed with store bought beauties was more like a photo album instead of a tree that held memories more precious than anything you could capture in a tear-jerking Hallmark ad. I was so touched by her care and love for everything I really wished that I was part of her tree and that I had some lovely contribution to add.
So I gleefully announce the holidays are here and I’ll embrace them whole-heartedly this year as I make mr.jack and I a lovely little tree and a lovely little holiday. My thanks to Jenny for giving me Christmas CPR, you have no idea how much I needed it.
posted by Stephanie at 9:49 AM
1 Comments:
I almost started to cry reading this. Thank you thank you thank you! I love having someone to decorate with and for me Christmas is all about love and happiness, so being able to share that with my friends and family is the most important thing to me. So I'm so glad I could help spread the cheer!
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