Ornamental Musings

I pondered aloud whether I should up a Christmas tree this year.

"It's totally up to you," Mr. Ginley replied.

"Okay, then," I countered. "I'll put up the tree with just lights on it."

"Aww," Mr. groaned. "You have to put at least some ornaments on the tree."

"Well, you said it was up to me. But okay, which ones do you want me to use?"

"Just the ones that we always put on the tree. Like the Irish one we got from that store in Alexandria the first Christmas we lived there."

And so it was that I proceeded to haul our petite faux tree from the basement and string it with lights. 

Which didn't light.

"Aren't you supposed to test the lights before you put them on the tree?" inquired Mr. Ginley oh-so-helpfully.

"Well, these were the ones that worked last year, when we had the tree up until April," I replied. 

Off came the two strings of lights and into the garbage they went. Up went the two remaining strands. 

Next, I added the Irish ornament, the Eskimo ball that's gone on the tree from the time I left home and the paper angel with Joe's picture on it that was a holiday project in kindergarten. Then I added Thomas the Tank Engine.

"Where's the angel for the top of the tree?" he asked. Up went the angel.

Mr. Ginley peered into the box that housed the remaining ornaments. 

"You could put one Snoopy on the tree," he directed. "And look, you have Thomas' friends, you have to put them up there with Thomas."

I pulled out a green and a red engine, aka, Thomas' cohorts on the Island of Sodor.

"You want me to add these two?" I did not call them by name.

"That's Edward and James," he snipped. "I can't believe you don't remember their names."

Onto the tree went Edward and James.

"Anything else?" I asked.

"Oh, it's up to you," he replied. "But don't we have any sports ornaments?"

"We have the Indians but it's got the Chief Wahoo logo on it," I replied. "Ovechkin lives on the mantel all year long, so there's no point putting him on the tree. And we've forsaken the Browns because of he-who-shall-not-be-named."

I then went through and put up a few more of the classics. The Freedom of the Seas ship from our cruise, the tiny stocking with his dad's initials on it and a little stuffed reindeer.

"What's this dog doing on the tree? We're cat people, not dog people." 

"It's a reindeer. And it's been on the tree every year for decades," I explained.

"Hey, what about this one with our cat's picture on it?" he said, pulling yet another trinket from the bin.

"That's not our cat. That's the picture that came with the ornament."

"We should get a photo of Maggie and replace the picture and hang it on the tree."

Now I need to print out the picture of our cat so she can grace the branches of our now not-so-sparsely decorated tree.

Also, I added the plush cast of characters from Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer beneath the tree. 

At last, the decorating was done for the season. Time to sit down, relax and admire my handiwork.

"Hey, why didn't you get out the wreath, the one you always put the little chocolate candy bars on?"

And so it goes.