A shiny aluminum Christmas Tree

We are decorating for the holidays....this particular tree reminds me of Elvis. Don't ask why, I am not sure....I keep humming "It's a blue Christmas without you." there must be a correlation.

For some reason we decided to decorate early. For us, this is early; although the cuter half is insisting we start in October next year to do the entire house.....He is thinking a ski lift in the dining room.....Not sure about that one.....I am thinking we are going off the bend.

Really what got us into the holidays this year was the fact that we are ABLE to decorate. We do it now, then go decorate other places then take those down and ours comes down by the end of January. Oddly enough we have a bunch. People keep giving us stuff.....it is almost like we have magnets on our foreheads "Give us your old stuff....we like it." Which we do but it is getting a little bit overboard.

The boy LOVES Christmas decorating. The year my Dad passed I didn't want to decorate and he was agast. "WHAT? No nativity village in the family room? Grandpa loved the Nativity village. We have to put that up! What about the tree? What do you mean 'On the table'? We have to decorate for Christmas. We HAVE to, what would Grandpa say?" (imagine dramatic voice and tone) So we did. Decorate I mean....totally....all over.... with our nativity. Most of the nativity buildings we got were broken. We bought them inexpensively and fixed them....I am very good at repairs- lots of glue and paint.... then putting up the trees, getting things together....making it look like Christmas.

What others see as wealth or extravegance we view as thrift. We never would have bought these buildings at a regular place... so we get busted decorations and made them pretty and now it works for us. I can't say that works all the time but it does make for an enteraining story regarding Christmas decorations at our place. You would be amazed at what can be picked up at the Salvation Army, Goodwill and garage sales....it is great stuff.

Traditions are BIG with the boy. He has is own tree, with ornaments, his tree has a theme...or two. And each ornament has a story. They are HIS stories- some of "Remember when....." Or "I can't beleive we found THAT at a garage sale...." at this time of year it is easy to cop out. It is easy to keep things or not bother because as parents we don't get a break or we are tired of fighting or just plain exausted. Most of the time people say that kids with Aspergers can't handle or celebrate Christmas. They can when they have been trained. Each kid can have their own tree, their own decorations. The boy wanted a star like Grandma's on his tree. We found one at an estate sale. Now he has his own Christmas tree star....it is an old thing, with lights and goes great with this table top tree that he has.

With the training for the holiday, we need to decide WHICH traditions are important to us, and those we keep going. Our traditions....with trees, and ornaments and all that....well those are OURS. You will have different ones. Maybe you will have a small tree, or a big one. Maybe no lights outside, or maybe you DUMP the box....Whatever way you do it....however much you decorate....whatever you do....keep your traditions. LIGHT your candles, love your tree, bake cookies for the neighbors.....Keep your day and teach your kid the same ways....our son's fav decorations are outdoors, with the blow molds....all over the yard. We keep saying next year. Well guess what? NEXT year is gonna be next year. We are putting up the blowmolds and taking the trashy and flashy award.....

Have you ever read Dickens? The Christmas Carole is the best holiday story ever and the last paragraph always brings a tear to my eyes.

Scrooge was better than his word. He did it all, and infinitely more; and to Tiny Tim, who did not die, he was a second father. He became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew, or any other good old city, town, or borough, in the good old world. Some people laughed to see the alteration in him, but he let them laugh, and little heeded them; for he was wise enough to know that nothing ever happened on this globe, for good, at which some people did not have their fill of laughter in the outset; and knowing that such as these would be blind anyway, he thought it quite as well that they should wrinkle up their eyes in grins, as have the malady in less attractive forms. His own heart laughed: and that was quite enough for him.
He had no further intercourse with Spirits, but lived upon the Total Abstinence Principle, ever afterwards; and it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God Bless Us, Every One!