Christmas season is bursting out all over! The Covert household spent a goodly share of this week decorating for all those friends, family and guests who won’t see any of it this year - well, yeah, maybe readers of this blog, but otherwise it was an exercise in nostalgia for us. Deb has been traveling the globe for over 46 years, and from the beginning she has been collecting holiday ornaments from every stop she has made. For this unique year, we are restricting ourselves to only two full size trees, and two tabletop trees. The “cat” tree didn’t make the cut this year, but the entire box of cat ornaments lies undisturbed on the decoration shelf in the garage, silently waiting for any mice to creep by and expecting to see the sight of the twinkling lights next year.
We hauled the boxes. struggling them down from the shelf in the garage and then hauling them up the stairs to the kitchen and staging them in the various rooms for the exhumation. Newspaper wrapping flying, she began her work. There is the table top “kitchen” tree, covered in food, kitchen appliances, roasting turkeys, pigs marked with butcher lines, coffee cups, and myriad small objects related to food, wine, and all things merry.
The dining room table tree is an amalgam of smalls collected over the years, including Swarovski crystal miniature ornaments (thanks to Shirley,) small Paris themed ornaments and other sundry miniatures, the kind of oranaments that would be lost on a larger tree, but are perfect when viewed from a dining room chair as one drinks coffee or sits to write a blog.
In the family room is the 8 1/2 foot live tree found at Ace Hardware last week. This tree was reported to be a Douglas fir, but we have our doubts. It is the type of tree we like: strong branches well separated, to hold the heavy ornaments and provide the space for all the items collected from all those places.Paris, Budapest, London, Moscow, Avignon, Reykjavik, Edinburgh, Heidelberg, Warsaw, Krakow, Prague, Dublin, Belfast, New York, Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., Pittsburg, Boston, Lennox Mass., Quebec, Prince Edward Island; the list can go on and on.
In the living room, near the fireplace is the other full size tree, an artificial one that was picked for its slender shape. It arrived pre-lit with 100 lights, obviously not nearly enough, so another 200 are added each time we set it up. These are all white lights, and on this tree go more international ornaments plus a number that are family heirlooms, handed down over the generations.
Last, but nowhere near least is the HUGE box of Santas. This large plastic chest, when full weighs nearly 75 pounds and getting it up from the garage is worthy of a Chaplinesque movie. Deb tugging from the front and Mark pushing from below, it is slowly slid up the steps. We stop at the top to catch our breath, and then, with each grabbing a handle, walk it into the living room for the unwrap. There are over 110 Santa objects in the chest, each wrapped or boxed, if truly fragile, and each to be studied and reminisced over as it is prepared for its place in the display cabinet or various shelves. Of course, preparing the display cabinet is a major undertaking of its own. This is the time for the annual removal dusting and then cleaning of all the glass in the cabinet.
Otherwise a quiet time this week. Last Friday we again enjoyed a Cocktail zoom with our friends Kevin and Tom in Tucson and Saturday we did some shopping, picking up groceries and getting the car gassed up. Tuesday, Mark also logged a couple of hours at Josie Harper Hospice House with the Extension Master Gardener crew completing the holiday decorating in the gardens. This will be the last time for the crew getting together in 2020, so we enjoyed the 60ºF sunshine, chatted at a distance, and placed some holiday cheer around the patios and entry of the facility.
Wednesday we again had another Covid Test, this time driving to the north Omaha campus of Metro Community College for our sinus cavity swabbing. We decided we might as well mix up the travel a little when the weather is allowing. Returning home, Deb cooked a batch of chocolate chip cookies and we mixed up a couple of liters of Glühwein mulled wine and drove out to spend a few hours at Lee and Howie Needelman’s patio, under the heaters, sipping our wine and eating some cheese and crackers as we watched the sunset. Their youngest daughter Molly is visiting for a month from San Francisco, taking a break from her toils at You Tube doing whatever it is she does for them. It was great to see her, meet her dog Desi and visit about her adventures. Once the sun sets, the temperature quickly plunges into the low forties, so we bundled up around 6:15, wished them a happy upcoming Hanukkah holiday and headed home for a little TV and reading before retiring at a reasonable hour.
Thursday, our friend Glenda Pierce from Lincoln stopped by for a visit on the front porch, delivering a 6-pack of Guinness Draught Stout to Mark as a belated birthday gift. Very much appreciated and it will not go to waste. Glenda even suggested that, with the colder weather closing in for the weekend, a Guinness stew might be in order - great idea. Deb was off in the afternoon, delivering cookie care packages and picking up a few last minute packages. The COVID test site was a good choice. We received our results on Thursday afternoon, both still negative. We ended the day by finishing off the Hot Dog package on the grill (we are slated for 2+ inches of snow and freezing rain over the weekend.)
As we finish this on Friday morning, the large snowflakes are starting to fall. Be safe, stay home, practice safe distancing, wash your hands, mask up and envision the lockdown as inclement weather that just keeps going on. If you haven’t been keeping track, the formerly Great Orange One has yet to offer any hint of concession, instead continuing to offer lawsuits at every turn.
