"Downsizing Christmas?"

A gift from a old friend, Judy Walker.

Well, I really don't know why I was worried. For years, my wife has been trying to downsize our Christmas. It has always been her way to not make such a fuss over anything, choosing to stay behind the scenes and in control. It is pretty much how she was raised, whereas I, being raised by a couple who were always competing with each other for everyone's attention, am just the opposite.

Each Christmas, Therese, Brian and I would make a pilgrimage to purchase one ornament for the tree. Brian and I would compete over which decoration was the best for the year. Inevitably, we wound up at Stats, in Pasadena. We would settle on one, write some cosmic note, add the date, and, each year, hang it on a larger and larger Christmas tree to accommodate all our ornaments. We now have tons of Christmas ornaments, Nativity scenes, stockings, greetings, nutcrackers, stuff animals, snow globes, and other seasonal paraphernalia.

To my wife, it was becoming over the top, eccentric, and extreme to the point of being obscene. To me, that was just the point... it's Christmas!

Well, last year we didn't celebrate Christmas at home choosing to spend time with our friends in Southern California. This year, we almost did the same. But, there is so much personal business we really have to address, that, two days before Christmas, we decided to decorate the house and buy a tree with the stipulation that we would discard, sell or give away half of our Christmas booty. Sadly, I acquiesced.

On a very gray and wet day, Therese decides this is the time to get rid of some things. I would imagine in most households, it is the male who is "Bah Humbug" about such things, and would gladly dump Christmas entirely.

But, that's not me!

Listening to appropriately enough, Merle Haggard's, "If We Make It Through December", I walk into a ornament filled kitchen, offer my female Grinch an eggnog, all the while thinking about spiking it enough to bring her back to her Christmas senses.

Merle Haggard's, "If We Make It Through December"
http://youtu.be/U9TByT3QlWc

"Ben, look at this cute little clock. It has tiny mice sitting on the second, minute and hour hand. Isn't it just too cute?" she asks.

"Yes, it is, but I thought it was broken. The minute hand snapped off years ago, didn't it?"

"Yes, but I remembered where I put the minute hand and super glued it back together again," she boasted.

"It's a keeper!"

It is one of the beautiful things God gave us... women who can't help loving cute... any and all things tiny and cute. I can relate to that!

I don't think Brian or I have anything to worry about. Eat your heart out Salvation Army, maybe next year!

Copyright 2014/ Ben Bensen III