My Old Journal: Through the eyes of…

NaBloPoMo – Day Twelve

In my Advanced Placement Writing Class, we were encouraged to view things from another perspective and then write from that point of view. This really was a neat exercise, and I’ve found that it can get the creative juices flowing if they’ve been stagnant for a while.

Here is one such entry as found on page 70 of my old journal:

THROUGH THE EYES OF A CHRISTMAS TREE by me (December 15, 1990)
I have the best view in the whole house. All day long I stand at attention in the bow window of the living room.

When people stop and stare at me, I wink my red, blue, yellow and green eyes at them. The color of eyes that I wink at them with depends upon the mood that I’m in. I’m in a cheerful mood now, but who wouldn’t be? It’s the Christmas season!

I am so proud to be here with this family. I can’t wait to tell all the birds who will live with me when the Christmas season is over and this nice family puts me outside to live, about all the fun I’m having.

You should have seen it; I almost died laughing when they started putting these unique little things held by string – I think I heard the children call them “ornaments” – on my limbs because it tickled so much! I hardly even feel them now, but I laugh just thinking about it.

I have learned a lot about this family by the things that they put on me. They have adorned me with all different kinds of things from glitter and glue Kindergarten projects to wooden figurines to intricate glass icesicles. (I hope I don’t sneeze; this family would be upset if I broke something.)

My favorite piece of jewelry, however, is the homemade silver star on the tippy-top of my head. I am so overjoyed that this family picked me to wear it, so I will wear it with pride.

I’d better go for now, because they will be up from bed soon and the peace and quiet will be gone.

Ever since I moved away, I’ve not had a full-size Christmas tree. We get a ton of Christmas cards every year, and I string them on pretty ribbon and hang them on our banister, or I display them on the wall in our dining room. I really like snowmen, so I set a few of those out, but that’s about all the decorating we do for the holidays.

Nearly every year, we’re never home for the holidays. We’re always traveling to see family that lives out of state. The kitties can’t be trusted with such decoration when left unattended for long periods of time, and I never really had the time or energy to decorate for a season we wouldn’t really be celebrating here, only to take them down before we left.

The year we had Claire, everything changed and we stayed home. That year, we put up a few more decorations, but didn’t get around to doing a full-on tree. We refused to travel with a teeny-tiny baby, and we had one of the best Christmases I can ever remember as an adult.

It’s not that we don’t enjoy being with relatives on Christmas, but it’s rough traveling over the holidays, and our time is always so rushed. Last year, the three of us went on a Tour of the Midwestern Trifecta (not unlike the trip we took this summer), and thankfully we were able to barely squeak by between blizzards. Claire was a rockstar on the trip and handled everything masterfully, but it was so tough on Momma and Daddy. We were exhausted.

We both remember how much fun the holidays were when we were kids. We both remember how exciting it was waiting for Santa and waking up in our own beds and feeling the joy and excitement of the season. We both want that for Claire.

So, this year, we’ve decided to have Christmas at home and start our own traditions. We’ll be picking out a Christmas tree and hanging the ornaments we’ve each cloistered away in our boxes of treasure, and we’ll be picking out some new ones that are just for the three of us. We’ll hang our stockings by our own fireplace, and Santa will know to stop here this year.

For old time’s sake, here are some pictures of Claire on our first Christmas together as a family. (She’s not even a month old!) You’ll see that there wasn’t any extra decoration needed to make the holiday complete…

A Note about the pictures: You can click on each image to make it bigger,
and then you can click on that image to make that one bigger as well…

All of the gifts we got in 2005…

Now that I’m in a more festive outfit, can’t I open just one present?

Opening presents takes a lot of energy!