Christmas is no longer the day it was. It used to have a little magic to it and the Girl belief in Santa Claus helped. I remember telling them as I ran up stairs I think I heard Santa's sleigh and they better get to bed. Or the other time I told them about the time I saw Santa Claus when I fell asleep in the chair in Nyack one Christmas eve. These are stories I guess I'll have to save for the grand kids
I watched Nasta wrap some of her presents. She used twice the amount of paper needed and half a roll of tape to sort of wrap a present for Teri. I stepped in to show her how to measure the paper and how to fold the corners and end up cutting the wrapping paper about an inch too short. some lesson. She comes up with cutting out trees from the design on the paper to hide the shortage, good idea. Elena is better, she uses less paper. You can still tell she wrapped the present her self. I have to say I am proud how they have both grown to buy their own presents with their own money and to wrap them mostly on their own. It was only a few years ago I supplied the money and helped wrap them. They bought their presents down and put them under the tree. Teri spent a day and a half wrapping presents and I helped her bring them down from where she wrapped them in the attic. We didn't wait for them to fall asleep like in the past.
This Year there was no letter to Santa, no cookies or chocolate milk. We bought the Santa my mom made a few years ago (over ten years ago now) and pulled out a letter to Santa from Nasta and Elena. It might have been their first letter to Santa. We passed the letter around and put it back where it was for someone to discover it again in the future. Everyone went to bed late and when the sun rose the next morning it was just Teri and I who got up early. Nancy joined us and I went back to bed to keep Mosha company in the bed room while Nancy's dog, Nevel got some time to run around. Around eleven we opened gifts. Then We made a trip over to Karl and Madeline's for a visit and a little brunch. Dinner was about 3 pm and We had a very tasty Rib Roast. Dinner was attended by Teri, Nastia, Elena, Nancy, Amanda Tony and myself. I was a nice dinner.
I tried off and on to take a nap, never quit succeeding. Every time I tried there was a chore I was needed for.
At 5 pm David joined us. Around 6:30 We, now a group of eight went over to Eric and Lynn's. Eric had fallen two days earlier and had limited mobility. His poor legs. Karl and Madeline made a rare appearance and it was a nice night. We played the Yankee Trader gift game and some where in the middle the rules got broken, no one seemed to mind. People were teaming up and working to get the present they wanted. It was funny, but it got redundant after a while. Someone would take a gift from Nastia, then she would take her boyfriends gift and he would take the gift she wanted back. There were several couples that did this. It was funny at first, later it got a little boring. Teri wanted to keep a picture my mom drew and Denis wanted to take it from her, so she tried to hide it under her shirt. Denis one upped her when he put on a pair of rubber gloves and used a grabber people in wheel chairs use. It was the funnest moment of the night. Company and deserts were nice. Now finally Christmas is over. Just New Years left.
Tuesday, December 25, 2018
Setting up the Christmas Tree
Setting up the Christmas Tree has become a chore. Way back in the before time (When is that?, Well I guess that was when it was fun to put up the Christmas Tree) it was fun to put up the tree.
Since I have known Teri, she has had something against putting up Christmas Trees. The first year We were together, my Mom gave her a small tree put put up in her apartment. It was a foot or so tall, fake and of little bother. She at first didn't want to take it. She thought since she was not celebrating Christmas their it was not necessary to have any Christmas decorations. She took the tree and put it up in her cramped little Apartment.
I'd been out of my mother's house for a few years before I met Teri and I'd had a Christmas Tree every year and begun collecting Hallmark ornaments for the tree. More about that later. The Trees had always been real and full sized. My Mother gave me some ornaments for the family collection to start me off. I chose several of the ornaments that I had memories of putting up on the tree. A bird with faded paint, some thin glass ornaments that when they were bought were felt best put on the bottom of the tree so if the animals knocked them off and broke them who cares. They now held a place of value in my heart. The most important one was an ornament so old the writing was barely legible. It was silver and one of m,y Dad's. I wrote in another blog, in an other life about how I imagined it came to the family and then how It was given to me by my mother and several years ago broken purely by mistake. One of those events, that no matter how you spin it could of happened to you, it just happened to someone else.
Teri's and my First Christmas together she suggested we not have a tree. "Why have one when We are not going to be here" She said. A Valid point, but I wanted one and I needed one. It wouldn't be festive without one. So We got one. It was a real tree and Teri didn't like the mess of it. Needles falling off it every day, watering it every day and the fire hazard. We came to a compromise, fake one year, real the next. We did it for a few years until one year I thought, "Man real trees are a pain. let's go fake." so We did.
The Fake Tree we used for years required you to put up a three piece center pole, then take a lower branch, smooth out the needles and limbs, then put it in the correct slot. Each Branch took several minutes to straighten after it had spent eleven months in a bag.
A new Tree was purchased two years ago. It has two separate strings of lights already hung on it and all you have to do is set up the three pieces of the tree, the branches are pre-hung along with the lights. Of course, you still have to smooth out the needles and branches.
Is piece was not supposed to be the length of 'War and Peace' so I a\m sorry I have rambled.
On the night We,Teri decided to set up the tree, a discussion between Teri and I erupted, yes discussions can erupt. It centered on the thought from Teri that the Tree had to be put up on this night.(December 9) before it got too late.
In fairness We do a bad job of getting decorations up in a timely manner. We scoff at the people who put them up just after Halloween, We laugh at the amateurs who insist just before Thanksgiving is acceptable. "Fools!!" We decry, "How can You have the Christmas spirit when we have not even celebrated the day of giving thanks declared by Abe Lincoln, himself after the Civil War!" "Cynics, money lenders, Store Owners you all...." I guess I've gone off topic again, sorry.
After all that decrying, suddenly it's the week before Christmas and We are the only Christian house without lights. Even the Jew have Hanukkah lights up. So in our hast We put up some lights on the house, never the way it was planned, try to stick stakes in the frozen ground to hold down the light up deer (really feel Christmasey doing that) and finally the tree gets up. After it is all up and We sit back, we wonder why we waited and didn't do it sooner. Ah, life is funny.
Well, Teri wants to put up the tree on December 9th, Sunday. It had not been a day of rest for me. I started cookie baking because just like the Christmas tree, cookies never seem to get baked like they did back when I was a kid and my mom would set aside a day to do it with us. I started out with my Christmas cookie,
the pinwheel cookie. I don't know how or why I associate this non denominational cookie with Christmas except it was baked around Christmas one year and I guess I loved it and decided I needed to have it again when I thought about cookies for Christmas the next year. After that I made Russian nut balls. The Name get Nastia's attention until she hears nuts are in them. Crazy Kids, one day she will grow up and realize life is incomplete without some nut, relatives or from a tree, it doesn't matter. I thought I was making Teri's favorite Christmas cookie, it was not her's it was her sister's, opps. And finally I made Raspberry chocolate bars, but I put all of the raspberry jam into Nastia's cheese cake so I had to use Blackberry Jam. It was almost as good.
So I guess after all of that I was tired. Plus We went to see a real good movie called Green Book.
I'll finish this later
I'd taken teh tee down a few days before. I have learned to some time anticipate what needs to be done and do it in advance. Other times I procrastinate and let it hit me full in the face, but not this time.
The Girls get involved in putting up the tree. Elena is figuring out what goes firdt and I show her willingly stepping aside to watch the tree go together. Slowly all the pieces are put together and the different outlets are connected. I want to put some of my old Hallmark orniments up and I bring down a string of lights they fit. The Girls start to pull out the orinments from Hallmark and I remember why I stopped putting them up. I guide them, Teri says lecture them on the proper way to handle them. Some go up and some of the older one are not working so well. The Train with Santa in it is not going off like it should and the whistle sounds drunk. I get sad, theses stupid orniments are important to me and it is too soon for them not to work. I look at the box on one, it is from 1992. I remember I'm 60 and I bought this almost half a life ago.
Tree is up and the boxes go back up stairs, to make Teri happy. An Other Lesson I've learned over the years. Christmas is here and the tree is up. Now what about those lights. Oh yeah, I got the ones from last year still up All I have to do is find an extension cord. Christmas is so much fun.
s
Since I have known Teri, she has had something against putting up Christmas Trees. The first year We were together, my Mom gave her a small tree put put up in her apartment. It was a foot or so tall, fake and of little bother. She at first didn't want to take it. She thought since she was not celebrating Christmas their it was not necessary to have any Christmas decorations. She took the tree and put it up in her cramped little Apartment.
Teri's and my First Christmas together she suggested we not have a tree. "Why have one when We are not going to be here" She said. A Valid point, but I wanted one and I needed one. It wouldn't be festive without one. So We got one. It was a real tree and Teri didn't like the mess of it. Needles falling off it every day, watering it every day and the fire hazard. We came to a compromise, fake one year, real the next. We did it for a few years until one year I thought, "Man real trees are a pain. let's go fake." so We did.
The Fake Tree we used for years required you to put up a three piece center pole, then take a lower branch, smooth out the needles and limbs, then put it in the correct slot. Each Branch took several minutes to straighten after it had spent eleven months in a bag.
Is piece was not supposed to be the length of 'War and Peace' so I a\m sorry I have rambled.
On the night We,Teri decided to set up the tree, a discussion between Teri and I erupted, yes discussions can erupt. It centered on the thought from Teri that the Tree had to be put up on this night.(December 9) before it got too late.
In fairness We do a bad job of getting decorations up in a timely manner. We scoff at the people who put them up just after Halloween, We laugh at the amateurs who insist just before Thanksgiving is acceptable. "Fools!!" We decry, "How can You have the Christmas spirit when we have not even celebrated the day of giving thanks declared by Abe Lincoln, himself after the Civil War!" "Cynics, money lenders, Store Owners you all...." I guess I've gone off topic again, sorry.
After all that decrying, suddenly it's the week before Christmas and We are the only Christian house without lights. Even the Jew have Hanukkah lights up. So in our hast We put up some lights on the house, never the way it was planned, try to stick stakes in the frozen ground to hold down the light up deer (really feel Christmasey doing that) and finally the tree gets up. After it is all up and We sit back, we wonder why we waited and didn't do it sooner. Ah, life is funny.
the pinwheel cookie. I don't know how or why I associate this non denominational cookie with Christmas except it was baked around Christmas one year and I guess I loved it and decided I needed to have it again when I thought about cookies for Christmas the next year. After that I made Russian nut balls. The Name get Nastia's attention until she hears nuts are in them. Crazy Kids, one day she will grow up and realize life is incomplete without some nut, relatives or from a tree, it doesn't matter. I thought I was making Teri's favorite Christmas cookie, it was not her's it was her sister's, opps. And finally I made Raspberry chocolate bars, but I put all of the raspberry jam into Nastia's cheese cake so I had to use Blackberry Jam. It was almost as good.
So I guess after all of that I was tired. Plus We went to see a real good movie called Green Book.
I'll finish this later
I'd taken teh tee down a few days before. I have learned to some time anticipate what needs to be done and do it in advance. Other times I procrastinate and let it hit me full in the face, but not this time.
The Girls get involved in putting up the tree. Elena is figuring out what goes firdt and I show her willingly stepping aside to watch the tree go together. Slowly all the pieces are put together and the different outlets are connected. I want to put some of my old Hallmark orniments up and I bring down a string of lights they fit. The Girls start to pull out the orinments from Hallmark and I remember why I stopped putting them up. I guide them, Teri says lecture them on the proper way to handle them. Some go up and some of the older one are not working so well. The Train with Santa in it is not going off like it should and the whistle sounds drunk. I get sad, theses stupid orniments are important to me and it is too soon for them not to work. I look at the box on one, it is from 1992. I remember I'm 60 and I bought this almost half a life ago.
Tree is up and the boxes go back up stairs, to make Teri happy. An Other Lesson I've learned over the years. Christmas is here and the tree is up. Now what about those lights. Oh yeah, I got the ones from last year still up All I have to do is find an extension cord. Christmas is so much fun.
s
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