Decorating for Christmas

You never know when someone else is depending upon you.  

I got a reminder of that yesterday when my Neighbor complained, plaintively, "But why aren't you decorating for Christmas this year?  Where is your tree?"

My tree.  :::::deep sigh:::::  
She wants to know why I haven't put up my Christmas tree.  

Neighbor is the very last person I would have imagined fussing because she is always the very first person to tell me every single year that I have no business decorating for Christmas because I'm by myself.  Every year I have listened to a litany of comments deriding my decorating habits, the time wasted, the effort wasted, the foolishness of my actions.   And every year I have politely brushed the comments aside with a smile.  Now she wants to know why I haven't decorated.

Although I would dearly love to scream,  I tell her instead that I DO have a tree; it's just a very small one in the dining room and that I haven't put it in front of the window because the cat likes to sit on the sill.

The bald truth is that I still hadn't decorated the little tree.  It was sitting there naked as a hen's egg.  But I wasn't telling her that.

This morning, I put Arashi's Love album on the CD player while I decorated the little tree.  And I moved a couple of pieces of small furniture so I could put it almost-in-front-of the window (because Daisy still has sitting rights on the sill).

I put some "pretty" on the dining table.

Then I changed the teddy bear's bandana to a Christmas one, and made sure he had his book and a pair of spectacles (IanBear always reads The Night Before Christmas every year; he is determined upon that point).  

And I put my book on the writing table (I always read A Christmas Carol every year because I'm determined upon a few points, too--it's good to be reminded that no one is ever beyond redemption and change).

Today Neighbor is spending the day at the hospital while her brother has surgery.  She has to walk past my dining room window to reach her trailer in my side yard.  I'll be sure to turn on the tree lights before she comes home.

You never know when someone else is depending upon you.