It's nice when someday is now

I've composed several blog entries in my head on various topics, but haven't taken the opportunity to type them. Oh, well. I'll do my best to catch up.

This Sunday, Matt and Lizzy and I went out and got a tree. No big glamorous trip, mind you -- we were variously busy until about 4:30, so we caught the last bit of daylight and drove the four blocks to K-mart and picked out a tree in about 90 seconds from the good fellows who were freezing their tushies off so we could pay an exorbitant amount for a tree. I'm the one insisting on a "real" tree; my parents always had one, and I love the way it smells and feels and looks. But I'm not a fan of fake flowers, either. I guess I want the real thing, or nothing, in this respect.
So we got our tree, and went to Lowe's and got some lights. Matt thought we'd have to buy a bunch of ornaments until I showed him the boxes I had collected from my half-dozen trips to Rothenburg while I lived in Germany. You can't beat Kathe Wohlfahrt for nice, affordable tree bling. Even he decided that my outrageous collection was enough. Augmented by a few Hallmark ornaments we'd already picked out ... My Captain Jean-Luc Picard ornament needed an abominable snowman (with real fuzz!) to keep him company. And no tree would be complete without the merry five (including Toto) from the Wizard of Oz skipping down the green fir branch. I guess.

The putting up of the tree went surprisingly quickly and painlessly -- probably because I was not involved in the logistical elements -- and when it came time to put on the ornaments, Matt's mom and brother dropped by as if by magic. Seriously, we enjoyed sharing the moment with them. They oohed and aahed over the ornaments, and helped us find just the right spots on the tree, a task that became increasingly difficult. Lizzy took the job very seriously, trotting carefully from the ornament-strewn table to the lower branches of the tree to lovingly relocate anything she could get her hands on. If you come to our house while our tree is up, she will warn you that the watermelon slice ornament is not actually meant to be eaten; just to be admired. So be careful!

Then we turned off all the interior lights, and turned on the tree lights, and sat and admired our perfect tree. I had never bothered to get myself a tree when I was on my own; too much expense and trouble. Those hundred-odd ornaments, collected about seven years ago, could wait until I had someone else to share them with. And now I do.