One thing Mother and I agreed upon was the joy of decorating for the Holiday Season. She belonged to a Christmas club that met weekly throughout to make over-the-top decorations. Our living room would be off limits from thanksgiving on while she created a unique scene to be admired through the picture window by all driving by. Dad made life size characters, painted by mother, that were placed outside and augmented the living room spectacle. There were days you could not get in our drive for all the families out to see the our festive street. Who can forget the tree made of dowels painstakingly covered with pink feathers and supporting red shiny balls? Or the tinsel tree shined upon by a light with revolving colors? Every year was different.
I have unabashedly embraced decorating for the holidays, though in a much more, I like to think, "classy" fashion. I have amassed a whole cupboard of decorations which I can combine in numerous ways be it shiny-and-bright or mono-chrome or subdued... Unfortunately, the cupboard fell victim to the remodel, not once but twice when a couple of walls supporting the 2nd moved into cupboard had to be removed for a new electrical panel. (Apparently code does not allow a cupboard full of decorations within 3' of an electrical panel.) At that point I was living with the 3 dogs and a cat in the mudroom and had very little, if any, storage space. Christmas was crammed here and there, like amongst the jars in the pantry and the tools stored under the sink.
2020 has been a year best forgotten. One bright spot was that after 13 months in the mudroom, we got to move back into the house. A very low spot is that I will be home for Christmas alone due to Covid isolation. I can't show off my house which was remodeled, in part, with holiday decorating potential in mind.
I decided that this year's theme would be lodge-casual. Nothing glitzy, just warm and comfortable. The first problem was finding the decorations I wanted to use. Other than a tree outside, I didn't decorate last Christmas due to the cramped living situation. Now, I had an idea of what decorations I wanted to use but, with no storage-rhyme-or-reason, was having difficulty locating anything. To carry the theme, I decided to go with simple red lights on the tree.
The tree: Years ago we planted some noble firs just for Christmas. This year nearby trees were logged. The logging machines did leave the 4 remaining nobles upright but a bit damaged. The tree I chose had several dead branches and was oozing pitch out of scars. No problem. The tree was for me alone in my isolation. Missing branches adds to the interesting patina. I used my trusty chainsaw, cut it down and, brought it home on my quad which still sits against the front porch where I unloaded it. The quad now has a transmission that refuses to engage. To add insult to injury, I managed to get pitch globs throughout my hair as I wrestled the tree into the tree stand.
The tree stand: was still outside where it held last years tree and had become a haven for a large gathering of stink bugs. Fortunately I found them before I brought the stand into the house.
A sale of $1.99/100 tree lights was worth breaking isolation rather than finding and untangle lights I have stashed somewhere in the attic. I wasn't sure I could find enough red lights anyway so I masked up and hit the store. Unfortunately, they did not have any red lights. They only had green lights. Unwilling to go anywhere else, I brought green lights. I have never done a green-lit tree. Like most everything about this year, the result was not good. I plugged it in and all I could think of was the Grinch. From there came the inspiration for the tree top and decorations. The tree is nothing like the glorious trees I always decorate, even if they are outside. It is more akin to a pink feather tree but with a little humor.
