Christmas Day has come and gone. I hope it was meaningful and has provided you with memories you can tuck away and ponder during the coming year. THE SEVENTEENTH CHRISTMAS TREE was drawn from memories of Christmas with my husband’s family last year. It happened like this.
My mother-in-law loves to decorate almost as much as my character Noelle Sinclair. She is not shy about enlisting the help of her large family to transform her house into a Christmas wonderland. I spent one afternoon last year visiting with one of my nephews while he decorated the Christmas tree in the formal living room. She’d had him lug six totes of ornaments up from the basement. When she wasn’t looking, he put four of them back, but even with “only” two totesful of ornaments, lights, and garland, the tree was packed with decorations. It swayed dangerously when my nephew brushed up against it while putting on the finishing touches.
“Whoa,” I said. “We’re going to have to be careful on Christmas Eve. It could fall on the little kids.” As Christmas Eve at Mom’s is a grand free for all with kids diving for packages and wrapping paper flying everywhere while one of the aunties tries to catch it a trash bag, this was a distinct possibility. My mother-in-law’s solution? Remove some of the ornaments? Perish the thought! She roped someone into tying the tree to a hook in the wall.
This got me thinking. What if there was a woman who decorated even more extravagantly than my mother-in-law, one who did not have a family of minions to make her vision a reality? What if she insisted that her husband do it all? What if he finally got fed up? What would push him over the edge? And–what if there was a cat? You get the idea.
I hope this story made you laugh, but also to think. Are you running rough-shod over someone, like Noelle did Nick? Or do you need to stand up for yourself, as Nick finally did with Noelle? Or do you need to put your cat on a diet?
Thanks for coming along for the holiday ride and may your life, like Nick’s, change for the better in this new year!
Mom and her Christmas tree!
Your mother-in-law is lovely! And looking at the tree (actually, you can’t really SEE the tree for all the ornaments) as well as her own “personal” decorations (all that beautiful jewelry!!) it makes sense she’s expressing herself in a way that depicts her passion. Obviously rich fodder for your imagination and storytelling! Perhaps I’ll even consider cutting Noelle some slack now! But not the cat!!
She’s an amazing woman. I’m with you on the cat!