The end of the Christmas season marks the time that you put all your Christmas decorations away, which is never as fun as putting them up. On Saturday, Murray and I spent the morning driving around Springville with a tree on top of our car, trying to find the compost facility where we could drop it off, only to end up at the solid waste transfer station that is right across the freeway from where we live (suddenly we're glad that we don't live on that side of the freeway).Before taking down the decorations, I needed to take pictures of them for posterity's sake: our first Christmas together!
Perhaps of all the Christmas decorations to go, it's saddest of all to put away Twiggy the deer.
Earlier in December, we got together with my siblings to celebrate mine and El Senor's birthdays. Murray and I had already bought a new set of silverware for El Senor (to replace the silverware that I wanted to take back from him), which I figured was a pretty good gift. But a few days before the celebration, El Senor commented that Murray and I are now in the enviable position of giving joint gifts, but receiving separate gifts. So I decided that Murray and I needed to buy El Senor something else---gaudy and ridiculous---so that we could claim to have given him separate gifts.
We made a trip to Walmart and looked through their Christmas decorations. Of course, there were some atrocious dancing Santas, but that's not the kind of thing that you would ever want to give someone, even in jest. When we saw Twiggy the deer, we knew immediately that that's what we would give El Senor. It was a little awful deer made from twigs. Something that you'd buy from an old lady at a craft fair, but that Walmart was mass producing.
We wrapped up Twiggy nicely, and Murray gave El Senor the nice silverware. I gave him Twiggy. When he opened it, he asked, "What's this??" But we all appreciated the humor of it.
But then something most unexpected happened. El Senor, Murray and I all grew this strange affection for Twiggy. Although it was an ugly little twig deer, there was something absolutely charming about it... in a Tim Burton sort of way. So El Senor happily brought Twiggy home and put him on display, and I sent Murray out to buy us our very own Twiggy. (Thank goodness Walmart is more accessible than an old lady at a craft fair!)
When I was packing up Christmas decorations, I hesitated putting Twiggy away. I thought that maybe Twiggy should remain a part of our house throughout the year. But then I realized that if I put Twiggy away and only brought him out during the Christmas season, then Twiggy would retain his uniqueness and appeal. Now every year, Murray and I will open our box of Christmas decorations, and laugh with glee as we take Twiggy out and find the perfect place to display him.
7 comments:
Oh my... Twiggy really is ugly. Endearing maybe, but ugly. But I love your wreath! Where did you get it?
I can't believe you just called him ugly.
We got the wreath at Roberts Arts and Crafts. Not really original... one of these years I'll make my own or something. But you know, our neighbors stole one of our pumpkins earlier this year, so we had to display a wreath that was replaceable if stolen.
And if my neighbors keep their Christmas lights up much longer... they might just get stolen by a little elf...
Farewell til next year Twiggy, ......farewell.
That almost looks more like a jackalope than a deer to me.
Does Twiggy scare anyone else?
I think that wreath should come out again for Valentine's Day. But that's just because I love it and think it needs more time on display.
Also you will need to take photographs of your decorations for your posterity because they won't have memories of a nicely decorated home... because they will have destroyed it. Seriously our tree was completely bare this year except for the stray sock or mitten that my 3-year-old would "decorate" with. Everything else was never taken out or got broken last year.
It was really nice to meet you and I hope you come to book club!
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