Every Flourish...

Yesterday was a day devoted to Christmas decorating at the Dunnevant house. Actually, its been going on for over a week now, room by room. Pam is something of a maniacal genius in this regard. When it is all finished there will be seven Christmas trees. There will be Department 56 Christmas villages all over the place. The people who will soon populate these villages know nothing of COVID, refusing as they do to socially distance, and not a mask to be seen. Today is the day devoted to bringing these mythical residents of Christmas Town out of exile. By the end of the day they will all be out there in the snow covered streets doing wintery things. I envy them.

In past years, I must confess, this decorating obsession of my wife’s has been a little annoying. Not that I don’t love the end result, but it has seemed a bit excessive. When I hear her complain about never having enough time to get crucial things done I silently mumble to myself, “Here’s an idea...maybe don’t spend ten days decorating the house!” But this year...I’m loving every excessive flourish. This year it seems perfect. This year, I celebrate every twinkling light, every ornament, every wreath. This year it feels like striking a blow against everything that 2020 has been. We may have endured a horrifying political season, a miserable election, endless social upheaval and this interminable and infuriating pandemic, but Christmas is coming. We may not be able to hold everyone in the family close, but our lights will shine like a million stars if we have anything to say about it. And, it isn’t just us. Our culdesac looks like a cross between the North Pole and Vegas...and I’m loving it. Makes me want to gather my neighbors in a circle out in the street, hold hands and sing that weird ending song from the Grinch... Fah who foraze! Dah who doraze!

Everyone knows that Christmas trees tell the story of a family. Ours is no different. Every weekend trip away to someplace nice has an ornament. Every vacation, every life event is represented. When we hung the ornaments last night it was like an episode of This Is Your Life. The soundtrack featured Harry Connick Jr, James Taylor, Nat King Cole, and The Carpenters. Then Pam opened up the kid’s hand made ornaments that used to go on the “kid’s tree” years ago. They have been in a box for the past few, but not this year. No, this year they need to be on the tree...