My son prefers that holidays each have their time. Due to that, I do not decorate for Christmas until after Thanksgiving. I could if I chose, but it seems a small thing to wait. With Thanksgiving long over with, I decided it was time. Due to the problems with my floor and being uncertain of what this is going to cost me, the Christmas Spirit is not what it ought to be. I’m hoping that I can shake the concerns and celebrate the reason for the season.
After church today, I brought the dogs inside (so I would have to worry of anything was residing in my storage building) and asked my son to help get all the boxes moved from the building to the house. Many years ago, approximately twenty, we purchased an overly large artificial tree. When together it is so tall that there is no room for a tree topper. It is so big around at the base that usually I need help getting the strands of lights wrapped around. When apart, I need two giant storage boxes to store it.
Once we got the boxes down to the house, I made a comment on if he could get the television in that room to work. It had not been on in a couple of years. He fought with that for almost forty-five minutes. His frustration over cables that refused to work, a phone that he hates, and a television that was too old to do as he wished grew swiftly. My telling him to never mind I’d listen to the radio did not help. In the end, he brought his television out of the room he no longer uses and managed to get his old phone and television to cooperate and allow me to watch television while putting the tree together. Once he had that working he left me to the tree.
In the past, I would separate all of the limbs by size and then begin placing them on the trunk from the bottom up. Today, I began with the box with the largest limbs. Once they were in their perspective piles I began putting them onto the trunk. At one point I had an extra limb. I checked all the others already on the tree, I was confused as to why I had an extra. I set it aside and moved to the next limbs. I had two extra. Now I was not only confused but slightly frustrated myself. Setting the extra limbs aside together, I kept going. By the time I put the top of the tree in place and turned around, I saw an entire set of limbs, waiting. Something was definitely wrong here.
Finding my flashlight I began checking the tree. I finally saw what I had done. I had missed the second from the bottom ring for limbs. I sat back, took a deep breath and after a moment, I began what I had to do. I reached into the tree and removed the second row of limbs and dropped them down into the place they should have been. One extra limb found its home. With the next row of limbs moved down, I found the home for the other two extra. Slowly and methodically I moved the limbs from the wrong spot to the correct.
All the while doing this, my front door was open to the warmth outside. A warmth being pushed away by strong winds. The winds were also frightening my dog Molly. The other dog Bella, was not bothered in the least. Molly kept running in and out like an over excited toddler. When I could handle her anxiety no longer I closed her up in the bathroom. Bella curled up in the floor just out of the way and watched me
Once the tree was together correctly I moved all the storage boxes outside onto the front porch. I then tested all the light strands to make sure they worked properly. I then began wrapping them around the tree. Once the first strand was in place, I connected the next to it, but also plugged them into a drop cord so as to plug them in making it easier to see what I was doing. After the lights were on, I prepared to begin with the rest of the decorations. Right after a short break including a cup of coffee and the last slice of chocolate cake. And after going down to mom’s and walking their dog and filling the wood box.
Usually I’ll cover the tree with as many of the decorations as possible. Today I didn’t. Partially because of not being able to see as well as I needed and partly because I was still battling the less than Christmas mood. Hopefully tomorrow I’ll see if I need to add more or if it really looks good as is. Once the final decision is made on the tree, I’ll begin with the rest of the decorations. The one thing I will have to remember, is that I will need to leave all the areas that are in need of work clear. This means my decorations will need to be swapped around or not put out at all. Otherwise it would make it difficult for whoever comes to check out the floor.
For the moment, as I sit here sipping hot tea with the dogs sleeping by my side, while my mood may not be jolly, it is content. As I listen to the wind blowing outside creating amazing music with the chimes, my heart is at peace. An animated movie is on the television, one I’ve seen before and can ignore. It gives me time to reflect. My son grew frustrated enough to toss the flashlight and a remote. His comments on what he thought of my phone were less than polite though not ugly. Standing off to the side and watching him, I remained quiet. I did wonder if he realized just how much like his dad he was acting. It also helped me to remain calm with my own issues with the tree. I didn’t grow overly frustrated when I made my mistakes. I took a deep breath and fixed my errors. I do have my moments of frustration, but I am learning how to not allow it to control me. Life is so much easier, if we learn how to act in patience and not react in frustration to the things that don’t go our way.
Words from The Dirt Road 