Friday 28 November 2008

A Charlie Brown Christmas

It is a lovely snowy day with the temperature hovering around the freezing mark, and I am taking my time waking up. I should be dressed and getting ready for pottery, but it feels too good right here, and I know I will have to shovel out and brush the car and then deal with bad road conditions all the way from here to Mud Pies ... so I am being lazy.

Kenya is lying in her favourite spot hanging over the edge of the hill down to the lake. She is nudging a large stick and when it rolls down the hill she chases it and starts her game over again. She had a wonderful play day with Remi yesterday. Both dogs needed to get rid of pent-up energy and they were like healthy little kids going out for an hour rough housing and then coming in for cookies and heading back out to play as soon as they were warm and dry.

I have decided not to have a tree downstairs this year. I will decorate down there, but everything will be up high. This Christmas holiday Mud Mama and her whole brood will be here for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and then for the rest of the holiday it will just be me, the two adults, their husky, and the baby who is into everything and apparently delights in being naughty just now. And the dogs I will be boarding ... probably one more large dog in the house from the 23rd till mid-January.

I love Christmas ... everything about it ...the tree and its decorations ...the twinkling lights ... the snow ... the turkey feast ...the bustling of family ... the sharing of food, drink and gifts. But this year I am going to keep things simple so that the kids and dogs will not get themselves into trouble.

So ... Instead I am going to have three Christmas trees upstairs ... one in each of the windows facing the lake. They will be tiny tabletop trees from the woods and will be wonderful night lights for children heading to bed and lovely surprises for us whenever we go upstairs. I may even put one in the bathroom.

My father was the world's best tree decorator and I don't remember a single shoddy tree from my childhood, but his best tree was a tiny Charlie Brown specimen that he cut on his farm and decorated with miniature lights and tiny wooden decorations. It had about ten branches and each one had been lovingly festooned with carefully placed foil that reflected the lights. I loved that Christmas when the goose was larger than the tree.

3 comments:

Barbara Carlson said...

Definitely -- a tree in the bathroom!

Oma said...

It WOULD be lovely to have a relaxing bath in a darkened room lit only by a tiny Christmas tree, wouldn't it?

Barbara Carlson said...

Any time of year, no?