Freedom Write #3

I have to tell you how much I'm enjoying the Freedom Writes that have been turned in.  I've laughed out loud and I've learned a lot.
A recent journal focused on the holidays.  The writer noted "You're probably bored to death reading all about the holidays.  Sorry! I just love them!"

I DO TOO!!!

If you've been in my classroom before school or for lunch, chances are you've heard my holiday music playing.  Since... ummmm.... early November.  I can't help myself.  I think I'm part elf.  I inherited from my dad, whom we fondly call Papa Elf during the holidays.  My mom isn't the Grinch, but she cannot handle Christmas music before Thanksgiving.  She has to physically hide the entire Christmas CD collection from my Dad.  The day after Thanksgiving, like a kid on Christmas morning, my Dad wakes up and instantly asks for his gift: the Christmas CDs.  He has had the same routine for as long as I can remember: grab the CDs from Mom's "Grinch Drawer," go to the hallway closet, pick out his favorites (Vince Guaraldi: Charlie Brown Christmas, Bing Crosby, George Winston: December, Celtic Christmas, and 101.1 Variety), and then make his tea.  At this point, Mom can't go back to sleep so Papa Elf can turn up the music throughout the house.  Later in the morning, all of us kids will arrive at the house and we will head to western Jersey to get a tree.  We'll scatter throughout the tree fields and hills like an expired dandelion and holler, "This one!  I found THE ONE!"  Then we have to run back and forth and see who's is the best.  I hate to brag, but mine usually win.  What can I say?  I have an eye for the perfect tree (very round is our preference). After this we'll go to the Chatterbox, a round drive-in restaurant.  We'll go home and the tree will stand outside settling for a week.  In the meantime, the fireplace mantle is adorned with fresh greens, windows are lit by candles, and the village is set up in the TV room. Dad will spend Sunday afternoon hanging all the wreaths on the house and winding the lights around the birch trees.  I love the way my family's house looks at night.  It is so warm and welcoming.

You can guess what I do now that I live on my own?  I already told you about the Christmas music.  My mom would take my Christmas CDs if she could... but she can't --SO HA.  I guess you know what my favorite CDs are... yep, the same as Papa Elf's.  My icicle lights went up Thanksgiving evening.  I couldn't buy greens because I don't have a fireplace... and frankly I don't have a lot of space for extra since my living room is on the small side.  I moved furniture out so that I could get the tree in.  Speaking of the tree...

But the tree is up and Mari wasn't fond of it... too big and unknown for her.  She slunk around the room like a wild cat.  She even tried to eat it but scampered off quickly when the branches moved.  I waited a few days to put the ornaments on.  Good thing I watched her because she knocked the low ornaments off, standing on her back legs like a circus lion.  Now all the ornaments are three feet off the ground.  She also reached from the TV stand but I caught her stretched out to bat at an ornament and now that area is bald too. :(

I think there's nothing better than reading (currently Jodi Picoult's "House Rules") and listening to jazz or instrumental holiday tunes in the glow of the tree's lights. (And maybe blogging!)

So... I'm not bored with your holiday writing---I'm obsessed with my own holiday stuff.  I'm glad there are fellow elves out there. :)