I thought it was time to include another excerpt from my book. This one is dedicated to my best friend who really goes above and beyond.
| Dec 8, 2014
Me: Just swung by Mom’s house. There are enough Christmas decorations to decorate a small nation. I am a less is more person. However, I did put out the hideous plastic snow/angel people. It’s decorated simply, but acceptably. Linda came over and helped me because Mom did say she was family. |
There are regular friends, and then there are friends who will stand in the freezing cold at night helping you shove Christmas lights up the rear end of a hideous plastic snowman just so you can tell your mom that, yes, her house it decorated for Christmas. Linda is just such a friend. Having been friends since high school, Linda is more family. Mom actually declared Linda family, and she said was always welcome at all our family gatherings. I took that to mean that the childhood rules that no one was to EVER see how messy the basement was or to never let anyone in Mom’s bedroom, didn’t technically apply to Linda any more.
Linda helped me select a small assortment of Christmas decorations to make Mom’s home feel festive both inside and out. Mom was concerned about the less than festive appearance of her home to her neighbors, and because she was confident she’d be home by the holidays, she didn’t want to return home to a house that didn’t feel like Christmas. Linda and I set out the light-up ceramic Christmas tree my aunt made in the 1970s. It always reminded me of my childhood home. A few decorative boxes, a crèche, a wreath, and a few poinsettias topped off Mom’s den and front entryway. The inside was decorated in no time.
Unfortunately, the outside was really what Mom was concerned about. And as fate would have it, this particular night was absolutely frigid. Mom had a few plastic decorations that other than needing to be wired to her railing in order to keep them erect were simply plug in and go. Of course, the lighted Christmas garland that I was trying to weave through her ironwork porch column was not cooperating. With a handful of twist ties, a lot of grumbling, and some almost frozen fingers, we were eventually able to get her porch looking fairly festive. The last thing on the agenda was figuring out how to make the miniature plastic snowman light up when we lacked the proper size light bulb for its socket. The makeshift plan was to remove the original electrical unit, take an extra set of white lights, and shove them into the plastic hole at the bottom of the snowman. It took a little time and patience, but it worked. Now, I could finally tell Mom that, yes, her house was decorated for Christmas and there was nothing to worry about.