GIRL, BITE YOUR TOUNGE…
December 10, 2019
Girl, Bite Your Tongue…
Before we had kids, and before I had Plume…might I say I was a decorating maven. I remember distinctly after we moved to Columbia in 2005 and we started to make friends, taking great joy in entertaining and decorating my house for each season but particularly Fall and Christmas. I just loved the table scapes, the food, the friends, the drinks, the planning, all of it. Jeremy would even chide me at times for going “overboard” and fussing too much about such things.
But all the while I yearned for kids.
I dreamed about Christmas tree decorating, riding around in the car to go see Christmas lights. Cookie baking and crafting. It’s so easy to build these kind of events up in your mind of how “perfect they will be…” Social Media and Pinterest weren’t really even a thing back then so I would tear pictures and recipes out of magazines when I saw ideas I wanted to try (can you believe how much has changed in just over 10 years?)
This year, 2019, I didn’t hang one ornament on the Christmas Tree with my kids. After putting up a slew of Christmas trees at Plume in late October, the shop Anniversary, the Holiday Open House and all that comes with all of that…decorating at home was the absolute last thing I wanted to do on a day off.
I geared myself up to do it on the Sunday before Thanksgiving. Except that I came home late from work one night that week just prior to find the tree up and totally decorated. Jeremy and the kids had done it. In another time, I would have been so upset about being left out of this special event. But the relief I felt when I walked in and saw the tree up and decorated far outweighed the hint of sadness I felt that I didn’t get to do it with them this year. Is that horrible?
I was almost giddy. So much that I didn’t say a word about the random selection of ornaments, sparse lighting and the fact that it wasn’t really done the way “I would have done it”. The kids were just super excited to have it up and proud of their work. And I just felt joy with them. We’ve since added a few more ornaments and lights, but long gone are the days of coordinated garlands, ribbons and such. But I have to say, I’ve enjoyed the simplicity of just seeing their favorite ornaments proudly displayed.
More Christmas Joy came last week when I got home from work to find Christmas Lights on one of the trees and a couple bushes outside of the house. When I turned the corner and saw the tree the first thing that came to mind was those red “tube man” blow-ups that businesses put out in their parking lots to gain drive by attention.
I’ll let you decide what you see…
This is after they added a couple more “arms” to it.
And here’s the bushes…
There was a time when I would have complained and criticized and picked this apart and redone it to my liking.
But not this year.
This year I just laughed when I pulled into the driveway and allowed myself to enjoy their Christmas fun. It doesn’t matter how the ornaments and lights are hung and sometimes you just listen to the little voice in your head that says, “Girl, bite your tongue”.
Jeremy also bought some new lights for the roofline of our house, but our ladder wasn’t tall enough for him to hang them so he hung them on the outside of Plume. I hope they make you happy when you drive by!
We’re here for you this week Tuesday – Friday 10-6, Saturday 10-4.
Only 12 more Plume shopping days til Christmas.
P.S. Here’s a peek at our hours for the week of Christmas.
P.S.S. Don’t forget to Pre-order your Holiday Cupcakes for office parties, dinner parties, neighbor gifts…
