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RE: Murder at the table- A we-write Short Story
Cool tradition - though our youngest is very particular, with a new theme each year. She/we collect ornaments at the end of the season, so there's the lavender and green theme, the blue-lights-only with silver and white, the multi-color traditional look, the all-white lights with straw ornaments from Germany... it takes a long time to repeat a look. My redbird ornaments (made with real feathers) are falling apart and need to be re-glued.
@sarez, most of Mom's ornaments are scratched, faded, chipped, and well-worn. Hardly any monetary value.
Yeah, my tree is pretty eclectic, putting it kindly. ;-)
I'm into one of a kind ornaments, old European glass and modern replicas, blown and handpainted glass, a number of glass icycles, nature-inspired straw ornaments, and a lot of handmade wooden and paper ornaments.
I have very few plastic ornaments and have replaced most that I had once upon a time. Plastic just doesn't say "Christmas" to me.
There are also several strictly for laughs, such as a SCUBA cat with articulating arms and legs that I picked up in the Keys, Santa riding on a whale, plus a whole lot of nautically-inspired ornaments, including my favorite glass ornament, which is a lighthouse.
I also have a flurry of hand-crocheted snowflakes, made at various times by myself and my mother, a couple of bells and angels that she crocheted, and even a couple of papier mache globes and large brass balls that open to put small gifts inside.
I also have a thing for living trees, and had a Norfolk Island pine in Florida that literally got too tall for the house. We have another one now, in a large green pot, which we've used as our Christmas tree for the past three years and counting.
Before that, much to Marek's consternation, I used a dead pear tree for a couple of years, thorns and all, as an absolutely awesome Christmas tree. He finally put his foot down, hence the return to the Norfolk Island pine, which I agree is lusher and more lovely.
In any case, I prefer it to killing a tree every year, and I've never cared much for artificial trees, Christmas or otherwise.
We both have goal of growing a Norway spruce for the purpose, though I'm guessing it won't be happy inside for any length of time, so it may be a short-lived experiment. But perhaps it could be happy as our front porch Christmas tree.
And since Norfolk Island pines have to be inside for the winter anyway, in our climate, I don't feel badly keeping it decorated and in the window. It has come through like a champion every year, and thus far we haven't had too many issues with the cats, but I do keep its spent branches as a mulch around the base, and thus too prickly to be comfortable for kitty paws. ;-)
"I used a dead pear tree for a couple of years, thorns and all, as an absolutely awesome Christmas tree" -- classic! but glass ornaments - with cats!-- what about kids? -- I avoid glass and stick to wood or other materials now. In everything except dishes (Corelle, slightly less fragile than china). I drop things. Break things. Ultimately, everything is perishable. We still buy real trees to support local tree farmers but I don't buy cut flowers to support local florists. I know, I know...
And there's not a thing wrong with any of it. ;-)
I have a thing for glass ornaments, though these days I keep them higher, and the ones at the bottom, that the cats can easily reach, are not breakable.
My treasured ornaments, that would really upset me if they break, are usually way up high, and not actually on the tree itself.
Along the edge of the pot itself I have the brass ornaments, a few that are knitted or crocheted, and a whole lot of other things that they can't really hurt, unless of course one of them leaps onto the trunk of the tree, as my cat Bonnie did a couple of decades ago. ;-)
And, while I forego cut trees these days, I do buy cut flowers on occasion, so there's that. I love fresh flowers in our home.
You have matters well in hand! Ornaments too. :)
I'm not on a mission to put any florists out of business. It's the pressure and guilt-tripping of Valentine's Day to buy the cliche of a dozen roses that I oppose, and dining out on the busiest days of the year - calendars don't get to dictate how I celebrate any occasion, if I want to avoid the crowds and the pressure to do what everyone expects of us. But I can be as irrational as my dad, who has so few ways left to act out (in his 80s), he tells his doctor in a fit of rebellion, "I'm going to take one day off every month from the pills you prescribe." One day out of 30, he refuses to takes his meds! OMG, Dad! Let's go all James Dean on your doctor just to prove you still have free will and some kind of autonomy....
Lol, right there with you.
Because Marek travels so much, any number of special occasions have been "missed"as far as the calendar is concerned, but my attitude has always been that we'll simply celebrate the next time wee see each other. And it works.
As for your dad's rebellion, more power to him! If that's what it takes for him to feel better about his situation - so be it. It hurts no one, and may help him in more ways than you know.
God knows we have little enough real control in what happens, and sometimes the illusion of control can really help emotionally.
The illusion of control... little acts of rebellion... I hear you!
Mine is all too often the choice to do nothing, because it seems nothing really matters. (I know, I know. Gotta ACT more - sins of omission can be the worst - not the bad we have done, but the good we have failed to do)
Yeah, I know how you feel, I have my days where it feels pointless, or risky.
But more and more I'm refusing to stand by and simply watching 8
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