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My traditional schedule is this: Lights and tree go up on Fri/Sat/Sun of Thanksgiving weekend, and they come down on New Year's Day. We are a mixed-religion family, so the lights that go up always have to be up for Chanukah, also known as "the Festival of Lights," and they are white icicle lights outside, very holiday-neutral. Hubby is just as lazy as can be, and we've had times in our 21 year marriage where the lights stayed up till April or, at one point, year-round. Now it's my 16-yo son's job so it gets put up and taken down when I nudge/nag. I make it as easy as possible, all the decoration and the artificial tree are all in one place and we make a nice evening of it together, son and I. Daughter helped before she grew up, and it was something we all enjoyed together. Most all our decorations were loving made, over the years, in school, Scouts, or as family crafts projects. Now, it is almost becoming a chore and I can't do any of it, being in a wheelchair now. I spent all these years making it a joyful tradition together and now it's just a chore. Isn't that sad? I hope we can still reminisce as each ornament goes up, remember when we made this or that? Every one has a story. The one from the year we took in a child and his father for the Braille Olympics and they gave us an ornament. The time we made cork gingerbread houses to celebrate having made a whole gingerbread village that was on display at the fire dept. The years we hand-crafted pasta-angels, the four Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle bulbs, the salt-dough "cookies," all lovely memory-triggers.
Rani
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