Sharing the Joy Of Christmas

After my heavy bout with self-pity yesterday, I woke up this morning deciding that this couldn't continue. I love Christmas. I love the hullabaloo of the holidays. I always have. Just because one side of the family is busy and not too happy with each other, I barely know the other half, and most of my friends don't live in the area is no reason not to celebrate. It'll be hard for me to remember this. I get so down sometimes. I've never been very good at changing or doing things differently, but I'm working on it.

I cheered myself up with some Nick Jr. and TV Land while the laundry was running and Dad put up the lights on their house. (He's going on a work trip next week and the lights seem to be his responsibility. I offered to help. He said he was fine.)

Dora the Explorer played doctor today and administered band-aids and lollipops to friends with sniffles and booboos, including helping my personal favorite of her pals, sweet blue big guy Benny the Bull, learn about allergies. We also learned how to treat other minor injuries and illnesses, from cuts to thorns (I felt for that poor crocodile who had seven thorns in his tail - ouch!).

Go Diego Go! headed back to the ocean for a fairly typical tale of how Diego helped the King of the Humpbacked Whales get out from under a shipwreck. Obviously, Humpback whales were the featured animal of the day; the finale, in which you call a group of whales to help the king by "singing," was really fun.

The Backyardigans went on one of my favorites of their adventures, the hilarious Cops and Robots. Galactic gumshoes Sergent Tyrone and Officer Uniqua pursue "bad bots" Pablonater and T-900 (Tasha) in a great spoof of buddy-cop programs and space operas. If the "bad bots" make their way into the Robot Factory, they'll turn all the robots bad...but you really can't stop those cops! The jugband music in this one is some of the most infectious of the entire series. I'll probably be singing "Can't Stop the Cops" for days. "We're the best in the galaxy!"

I decided to perk up my flagging holidays by inviting my teen stepsister Jessa over to my apartment to help me decorate my tree. It was one of the best ideas I had in a long time. We both enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. Quiet, artsy Jessa was not only an enjoyable companion, she was a BIG help with the tree and dressing and putting up my Christmas bears. We did both in half the time, and other than the lights got a bit bunched up around the bottom, they look fantastic. I'm just glad the lights work at all. I could have sworn one set blew out last year, but maybe it was the other one...

A word about the bears. Every year, starting in the mid-80s, Mom would pluck about five or six stuffed bears and holiday-related stuffed animals from our rooms and dress them in old scarves, hats, and Christmas baby clothes. (One elf-like costume is Mom-made, from the year Anny was in the West Cape May Christmas Parade.) She set them up on her old hope chest next to the tree, and they'd remain there for the whole of the holiday season (including New Year's, when the woolen hats would be replaced with cardboard and aluminum tiaras and top hats).

By the time I was in college, however, Mom had largely stopped doing the bears, or would only pull out a few. She no longer had the time or the patience for a fairly elaborate display, so she gave the holidays-only bears and their trappings to me. I loved the idea, but not having a hope chest, I had no idea where to put them...until I realized the area under the tree seemed a little barren. The bears have sat under my tree every year since.

I'll continue my holiday decorating spree tomorrow with the rest of my decorations, including the mini-tree and Winter Cinderella doll who stands with my Sailor Moon collection and the doll/Santa display on top of the big bookshelf in my room.