Day #256: Christmas Decorations

 My dad has this theory that there are certain tasks which have been created to test your marriage. Paying taxes. Packing for a camping trip. That sort of thing.

Hanging Christmas lights was on that list.

Not that I ever saw my parents hang Christmas lights together. Lights were my dad's job. Begrudingly.

It wouldn't be fair to call my dad a grinch. He likes a good Christmas carol in December (he loves to sing.) He's very generous with presents and he enjoys making people happy. But he's never been a huge fan of what he calls the lala season.

When I was a kid, he had certain tasks at Christmas time. Getting out the boxes the decorations were kept in. Buying the tree. (He worked at a high school and the junior class always sold them in a fundraiser so that's where we got our trees for years.) Putting the tree in the tree stand. The other pieces...putting ornaments on the tree, putting out other decorations, those things we always did with my mom. Once the tree was standing and lit my dad would peace out on that operation. And wrapping? Every year he would take my sister and me into my sister's room on an afternoon and he would delegate the wrapping of our mom's gifts to us.

He's also a big believer in not starting Christmas early. He doesn't like the nuisance of it...the crowds, the commercials. Another favorite nickname for it is the "I want" season and he doesn't care for that aspect.

So this is the man we are describing. Also, let's add to that that my stepmother was admitted to hospice a few days after Christmas in 2015 and my dad was in the ICU a few days after Christmas in 2016. So there have been Christmases that have not been as joyous for sure.

I can tell 2020 must be the year everyone has gone crazy because my dad texted me about a week ago (just the fact that my dad texts is pretty nuts) and asked if James would like to come help him hang Christmas lights at his house.

He hasn't decorated much since my stepmother died, no tree, just a few lights strung around the bushes he can reach. His doctor has banned him from ladders since he fell during quarantine in April. 

Today we went to his house and strung bushes around his outside lights...nothing big, but it felt nice. I like that people are decorating early this year. I'm all for feeling as festive as possible for as long as possible. 

With the third wave of the virus hitting and Josh having just gotten home we had to be extra careful, which was hard for James to understand. We are always careful at Grandpa's, but today I had to kind of make the line clear. No eating inside, only socially distanced outside. We really didn't go inside at all except masked to use the bathroom and see the tree...it's a little fake tree but the first tree he's put up in the living room since my stepmother died. They really never used their living room except at Christmas, preferring to hang out in the family room where the TV is. But he put a little tree in his front window for the first time since my stepmother died. And I love that this was all his idea.

My own Christmas boxes are nothing to sneer at. I mean, I have a lot of decor. And right now decorating for Christmas feels kind of overwhelming because I know I have a lot of decluttering to do just to make decorating possible. But I also know it will feel really nice and I am looking forward to putting a ton of lights on my own house...James and I want to do a ton of decorating outside, much more than we ordinarily do. I know when I open the Christmas boxes it will feel bittersweet like it always does, and I will miss my mom because it is her stuff and I always do when I open it. But if my dad can feel festive right now, at this time of this year, anyone can. I have worried about him every day of this pandemic, although, let's be real, I worried about him every day before that. I know that we never know how much time we have left with anyone, ever. I have learned that the hard way more than once. But I'm glad I had today.

Media consumption: Man, I have just not been reading. I am still reading that same kids' book and this is way unusual for me. Maybe I will finish it tonight. And lots of How I Met Your Mother. I don't feel ready for Christmas movies yet, but man, I will soon.

Today I'm grateful for today, for family, for masks that make it possible for us to get out, for running with Max, for snuggling with James, for cozy socks and sweatshirts and layers, for sunbreaks in rain, for writing, for my warm cozy bed, for Josh making dinner, and for cookies. 

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