Deck the halls

I love the Christmas season.  I really love it.  Not because I am a Christian, or because I'm a Santa Clausian.  (I'm not really either, to be honest.)  It's because this is the time of year when people are a little nicer to each other.  It's the time of year when people throw an extra buck to the homeless guy.  When we pull our coats and hats a little tighter.  When you might see snow in New York City, (which is really magical, if you haven't seen it).

And it's the time of year when we decorate our tree.

I love decorating the tree.  Ever since I was a kid, decorating the tree has been one of my favorite nights of the year.  Mom would put on Willie Nelson's "Pretty Paper" record (which we duly made fun of), and we'd pull ornament after ornament out of the box - this one my great-grandparents brought with them from Germany; that one my parents bought in New Orleans.  My Mom - and Dad - could tell me the origin of every single one.

My great-grandparents with fab hats

Now it's my tree, and my family tradition, and my daughters.  The Bug had a blast hanging the ornaments (as evidenced by the super dense bottom two feet).  Now I know where every ornament came from.  And now I play Willie Nelson, but on CD.  Merging ornaments was one of the most loving demonstrations of our union, and hanging them with Joker makes me feel so warm, so loving, so happy.  I tear up when I hang some of them.  And I added to the spirit of our tree by eBaying some 1940s-era beads so my tree would look more like my Grandma Jan's.

This old horn from JOK is super irritating when blown