Take your pick

There are two ways of handling this situation.

You either put the tree up before Thanksgiving and light it on Thanksgiving night to usher in the Christmas season, or you get the Thanksgiving dinner dishes done, eat some pie, stash the leftover turkey and cranberry sauce in the fridge, get a good night's sleep, and start in on Christmas the next day.

Or the next, or the next. You've got a whole month to accomplish Christmas.

This year, I did it the first way: I Christmas-shopped throughout November and I put the tree up during Thanksgiving week. On Thursday evening, grandson Andrew lit the tree and we sang We Wish You a Merry Christmas and all the kids got a present.

I know; right? Super imaginative. What was I thinking? But there's more.

After the house had gone quiet on Thanksgiving night I boxed up every orangey-autumny decoration on the table and put out the glittering reindeer and the battery-operated lamppost beside which he stands sentinel.

I had installed the twinkly white lights on the front railing earlier in the week; Stephanie brought me a 24-inch real-greenery wreath (we'd bought it in a fundraiser from the grandkids' school) which I festooned with colored lights and hung on my door the night before Thanksgiving.

(We needed those props for our Christmas pictures.)

By the time I slept on Thanksgiving night, the house had been purged of everything turkified and pumpkiny and harvesty and give-thanksy. The fall-leafy wreaths were off the doors. The horn-of-plenty candle holders and the decorative gourds and the rustic baskets had been put away for another year.

Autumn was banished inside the house, even though outside the house, the leaf color was just getting good.

(Last Sunday, our temps were in the seventies. We are often bewildered in South Carolina, not least about what to wear during the "cold weather" months. And no; our befuddlement is not limited to seasonally-appropriate wardrobe.)

So yeah. All of that was dumb. Next year I'm doing it the other way. I think. Check back with me in twelve months.

But as of today, here is my advice: Don't mix your turkey legs and your sleigh bells; it can be overwhelming and less than gratifying. Don't ask me why; in the final analysis, what difference does it make?

The one positive, however, is I can now enjoy the entire month of December without scrambling to get ready for Christmas.

We are prepared. The tree is up, way up; the presents are wrapped and bagged and even now are stationed under and around the tree. Christmas cards almost ready to go out.

Speaking of trees, for several years I have put up a full-size Christmas tree in the kitchen, over beside the desk, and decorated it in the teal color and with ornaments of cupcakes and donuts.

But a few months ago we bought a big fancy popcorn popper to add to the festivities around here since it has been established that we pawty all the time, and who doesn't like fresh hot theater-caliber popcorn?

It's been a pretty big hit.

The popcorn tastes fantastic, it's fun to watch it pop, and even though it looks as though it would be, the machine is not difficult to clean.

But it is big, so its new home is that corner. I gave the tree that used to stand there, to Audrey and Dagny for their new house, so they wouldn't have to go out and buy all that stuff.

Dagny liked those donut and cupcake ornaments even more than I did, so there's that.

I did buy some old-school-style oversized multi-colored lights (they're LEDs) and draped them around the doorjamb as a Christmasy backdrop for the popcorn popper.

I may leave those lights up for the duration; I like how they look all happy there in the corner.

So here we are; December fourth and I've got nothing to do but enjoy a warm December.

Don't tell anyone, but I'm still (as always) dreaming of a w h i t e Christmas.

And no; I'm not a r a c i s t. Don't even go there.

That is all for now.

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Happy Tuesday  ::  Happy December