June Cleaver Nirvana

Why does everything associated with Christmas that a family would use to decorate their home need a sign, "handle with care"? I think I have found the underlying cause for 90% of stress during the holiday season--everything is either fragile or flammable. And they say Christmas is for kids. And I am already over the whole snow globe thing, really!

The picture is of the boys glued to the "Nutcracker Suite" music box that was given our family last year by Mimi. They love that thing, but can only behave in front of it for 1.5 revolutions of the suite. So it starts with brotherly love and excitement and ends with mommy turning it off and shooing the boys upstairs with threats of coal in stockings.

I have a huge pet peeve around the holidays--ugly public decorations. I really believe (as demonstrated by the lack of outdoor decorations on my house) that no Christmas decorations are better than hideous ones. I will grant latitude for nostalgic kitsch and Griswold extravaganzas. I also extend slack to homeowners who are just trying to spread a little cheer. What drives me insane is really bad mall decorations. Yep, you know it when you see it and you probably have the sanity to just pass by, but not me! I just have to ponder what would posess someone/committee to say, "we have to buy this over-priced crap and display it for all to see"! Do they think if their decorations are festively tacky that it will make all the other junk in the mall look better by comparison? And you might say, "oh, they purchased that super tinsely crap years ago when that was the style and just keep putting it up year after year" and then I say to you (this is where I win our argument), "that doesn't explain the brand new mall that is near my house that has some of the worst decorations I have ever seen..."! Now, what do you say to that? You know I am right and next time I might have pictures...