'Tis A Season

Here in the Pope household, Christmas is not a day, 'Tis a season. Starts about a week before Thanksgiving, stocking the kitchen with the staples, butter, flour, eggs; the seasonals, dried fruits, nuts, root vegetables. Season ends when the Christmas tree comes down which happens to coincide with the football season. I have been known to tackle the tree the day after Super Bowl. Most years though, soon after Christmas- like January 2nd.

I knew it was time to get a tree when Holly Jolly Christmas and Feliź Navidad were belting from the stereo and Carli hinted by lighting a pine scented candle. A candle she lit last year while staying in a Southern California apartment with a fake- Christmas tree, that is.

 

Hanging from our tree are decorations we've hung every year. There are the milestone ornaments: my first airplane ride, my first puppy, my first beer, my first house, my first baby girl. This little guy was my first Christmas ornament, 1962. I guess you can call us vintage.

Our household is also ruled Democratically so every year we vote whether or not this cheesy cheeky cardboard cutout goes up. With three of us voting, odds are George Dubya is dangling near the bottom of the tree. Just below a sucker and Mickey Mouse. Brings out that bipartisan JOY to our Holiday Party.

For the moment, we will savor the Christmas season as long the pine aroma lingers and the majority of needles stay on the tree.

At the very least, our Christmas tree will be the centerpiece of our living room a couple Sundays into the New Year. One never knows, as they say, On any given Sunday...

The way the 49ers are playing, this, the last season at Candlestick Park, I may be taking our tree down the first Monday in February.

Seasons Cheer!