My family's living room, Christmas 2004
Today I'm not feeling long winded, so I will share with you two opinions regarding Christmas.
1) Christmas should not be thought about until either December or the first Sunday in Advent, whichever comes first. In extreme situations you can think about Christmas immediately following Thanksgiving. (Note: this does not apply to gift giving. You can always be thinking of Christmas gifts. This applies primarily to decorations and music.) I refuse to buy Christmas decorations in early November. I would refuse to look at Christmas decorations in November if that were possible, but I think I wouldn't be able to enter stores, so I'm not quite that strict.
2) I'm sorry mom, but a fig tree is not a Christmas tree. It makes a valiant attempt and is definitely more convenient, unique, and more ecologically sound, but it's just not quite the same. (This could be cross filed under: Why my family is weird...) Our fig tree also doesn't hold nearly enough ornaments. I also hadn't realized until I went through my photos that we'd been decorating the fig tree for so long. I guess going to the closest parking lot and buying a tree just didn't have the same appeal as going skiing and snowmobiling to cut down our own tree from the woods, either. So while I respect your decision and your past fig tree decorating skills mom, I think this year we'll have a traditional tree :)
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7 comments:
FIdsfjo
Aren't you violating your own guideline by posting this on November 21?
Yes, in some ways I am. But I had to rant about all the Christmas stuff that's already been up for a month already...
As brilliant and capable as Reid must be, I am beginning to think that he skipped spelling classes in first grade - I mean, fldsfjo grade.
How many ornaments do you want us to bring for your decadent, low-down, miserable, DEAD traditional Christmas tree? When I was shopping at Goodwill the other day, I wondered if we could hold a contest for "tackiest Christmas ornaments" to give to you this year, but then looked realistically at the selection in front of me and realized that any of the ornaments on the shelf would come in at least runner-up. So maybe I'll make some nice ones instead!
I am indeed brilliant and capable! Have you seen my faculty job portfolio? It took my wife an hour to read it. God help us all.
I also can spell - but I have sufficient self-confidence that I don't worry about fixing the typos.
Also, please tell your daughter that we need more treats in the lab. :)
I too object to Christmas starting until at least after Thanksgiving.
Also, though many things about Christmas are not my favorite (namely the materialism and stress), the tree is. I love nothing more than a nice pagan tradition co-opted by early Christians, and the tree is therefore perfect in my eyes. Plus having a huge fir tree indoors is fun. I have to agree that the fig tree, while charming and admirable, lacks something. For example, pine cones.
Mom - We currently have maybe 2 ornaments for our very Christmassy tree. We will be buying lights and Ben has said something about making strings of popcorn... You are more than welcome to make us ornaments, tacky or nice, but we are more likely to keep the nice ones :)
I can also attest that Reid has a good faculty job portfolio that scares me... I don't know what the fact that it took his wife an hour to read it means about his brilliance and capabilities, but I believe that he is likely telling the truth.
Reid - Perhaps closer to Christmas I will bring treats. Or my dad can bring treats with him when he comes up. Do you think the lab would like Cambodian sausage?
Simon - Glad to hear you are on the same bandwagon. I might have to work your third sentence into a future post... Really, having dead trees indoors in general is fun. Live trees indoors isn't nearly so weird. Did your trees actually have cones on them? Or are you referring to the potential to have cones?
Cone potential. Although I am not averse to cones. It's just rare to have a Christmas tree with cones on it. I do not know why. Is it the wrong time of year? If I had a field guide to trees, like I always wanted, I would be able to look it up. (What? You say use the internet? That's too easy.)
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