What Does Your Christmas Tree Say About You?

This was in Reader’s Digest  in 2009 and I thought it was funny.

12 Funny Things Your Christmas Tree Says About You

What your lights, be they multi-colored, white, or blinking, reveals to holiday company, plus the meaning behind the ornaments you hang.

By Rebecca Munsterer from Reader’s Digest | December 2009

White lights: You ask houseguests to remove their shoes.

Multicolored lights: You’re an extrovert.

Blinking Lights: You have attention deficit disorder.

Homemade ornaments: You have lots of children.

Strung Popcorn: You have too much time on your hands.

Red balls only: You wish you lived in a department store.

Yellow star on top: You’re traditional.

Glowing Santa on top: You shop at Kitsch ‘R’ Us.

Cutoff top: You didn’t measure the tree.

Vague evergreen smell: You bought a healthy tree.

Strong evergreen smell: You sprayed your tree with Pine-Sol.

Just plain smelly: There’s a dead bird in your tree.

 

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Fruitcake Nostalgia

Most people have strong feelings about fruitcake. You love it or hate it. I am just not a fan of it. Too much flavor going on in one bite for me. But my Daddy loved it! I mean, he didn’t care if we got a ton of them at Christmas time because he could eat them like crazy! And he was skinny as a rail so it didn’t matter. It used to kill me how that man could eat. It is funny to think back on. He’d start out saying he was just going to eat a little bit. Then there was a little more. Before he knew it, he’d have eaten the majority of it or all of it. (one of those log fruitcakes) This is why we would buy several of them at a time. Daddy also loved that I was a bargain shopper and would find them after Christmas in the “reduced price” area of the store. That way I could buy more.

So I saw fruitcakes today and felt nostalgia hit me hard. I thought of Daddy eating that cake that I despised. Tears filled my eyes. Bittersweet. I smiled and thought about how much he could pack away. I thought about how much I miss Daddy and how long it has been since I have seen him. I think of my parents daily and they are never from my thoughts but some days something just kinda cracks my heart a little.  I have a feeling that the closer it gets to Christmas and my birthday that it will be more pronounced. That is just how it is. But the important aspect is to find that special memory that makes you smile. (I have a song playing in my head as I type this. “Smile though your heart is aching…”)

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I Want Grumpy Cat

grumpy cat

That cat is the coolest cat after my two beauties! The facial expressions match my wry wit so much that it isn’t even funny. Well, actually it is funny. 🙂 I have dry humor at times where I just dead-pan and the look on that cat’s face kind of says it all. I want that cat! The thing about that cat is that it would ignore my other two and wouldn’t demand attention. Chloe has the same personality as Grumpy Cat’s facial expressions. She’s like whatever and I swear she cusses. Soleil would try to be friends because she is little Miz Sunshine but she’d be satisfied being Mama’s girl.

Won’t You Give?

This time of year is really hard on a lot of people. Then I see a lot of people online who post about how they spent so much money on themselves. I am hoping that they are also considering helping others, too. There are a lot of people who need some help. I don’t care who you are or what your political beliefs are, I’d like for  you to think for a moment about a kid on Christmas morning getting nothing. It’s not their fault that their parents are poor. It’s not their fault that the parents are possibly irresponsible. All they’re going to be thinking of on Christmas morning is how they didn’t get shit and it really hurts. If they do happen to have internet access, they’re going to see all of their friends posting about what all great presents they got. When they go back to school, everyone is going to say, “I got this or that for Christmas! What did you get?!” How are they going to feel when they have to lie? It’s going to hurt like you can’t even imagine.

I’m asking people who can afford to help others to do so. My Mama and Daddy had to have help for me at Christmas when I was a kid and I know it was hard. They weren’t lazy; we were just poor and struggling hard. If you have the financial means to help someone have a decent Christmas, please do so. You can find names on Angel Trees, through churches, through schools, through the Salvation Army, through local charitable organizations. If you don’t have time to shop, hell, tell me what age group and I’ll pick out everything online and send you a list and all you have to do is go to the website and pay for it! It’ll be sent to your home.

Encourage your workplace to get involved! Mine is sponsoring a whole family as well as another child through a local charitable organization. And don’t forget the older children! They’re often forgotten. They still want and need attention, too.

This is something that is heavy on my heart. I hope you’ll care about it as much as me.

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