"IF IT'S WORTH DOING........"

As Les looked at a bookcase in the family room which contained shelves loaded with Santa music boxes, he let out an exaggerated sigh and said, "If it's worth doing, it's worth overdoing!" because earlier in the day I'd quoted our mother's belief:  "If it's worth doing, it's worth doing well!"





My sister-in-law Sheila used to say, "There's no such thing as too many Christmas decorations!"  Les and Gerald disagree, especially after toting more than 100 tubs from the attic and a dozen more from the basement. [No, sadly, I am NOT exaggerating; Les said he quit counting after 100!] The family room is the Santa Room, the laundry room is the Nutcracker Room, the kitchen is the Oreo tin room, the hallway is the Holly Room, the dining room is the 12 Days Of Christmas Room, the living room is the Sleigh Room and the library is the Coca Cola, Elvis and Train Room! Mother's room is the Cardinal Room,  both bathrooms are the Christmas Seashell Room, the upstairs hallway is the Basket Room, the spare bedroom is the Poinsettia Room, our bedroom is the Miscellaneous Room and Les refuses to have his room "decorated"!

There MUST be a tree in every room, although Les says he knows there is NO law mandating that statement!  The Santa tree fell over yesterday because the ornaments weren't well-distributed. The "Button Tree" is decorated with buttons collected since childhood, with the top button being the cabbage rose from my wedding gown.  The Nutcracker Tree sets on the hamper in the laundry room and I hear Les' grumbling about it on Monday, Wednesday and Friday because those are laundry days. I reminded him that there are only 3 weeks left until Christmas.  On the kitchen table I have the Cookie Cutter Tree. The dining room has the 12 Days Of Christmas Tree and; the library has a Coca Cola tree and also an Elvis Tree; both bathrooms have trees decorated with seashells. The tree in the living room has the Waterford ornaments in the front, Gerald's Star Trek ornaments on one side, and my Wizard of Oz, Crayola, etc. ornaments on the other side. (Les said, "Sides? A tree doesn't have sides!"). Along the stairway are my mother's bubble lights and my sleigh ornaments.

As a kid we had one of those god-awful aluminum trees with the color wheel. That's why I've always had a "real" Christmas tree in the living room. Two years ago we bought an artificial tree and I hate it!  I now want an aluminum tree but was shocked to see the prices on E-Bay, etc.


Several years ago, an acquaintance came to the house, and not knowing that I decorate every room, said, "I used to say that I thought the Grinch lived here because you don't have any Christmas decorations outside!" I said, "I have the sleigh on the porch and wreaths on the doors--I don't have time to do any outside decorating!"


Last year I promised that I would decorate ONLY the downstairs but Les caught me decorating the upstairs bathroom at 2:00 AM! 

Last week,  he tried to extract the promise from me for this year NOT to go crazy decorating, and he said he's calling Dr. Drew, Dr. Phil, Dr. Oz,  Dr. Seuss, Dr. Doolittle, Dr. Welby, and Dr. Kildare to stage an INTERVENTION!