Packing a Life & a Pretend Tree.

December 15, 2011

Packing a Life & a Pretend Tree.

We are living in a state of moving purgatory. We have less than a week until we become official home owners and get the key to our new place and with two small children underfoot, we’ve slowly been packing away the contents of our lives in a mobile storage container parked in front of our home. Brent and I have become expert movers. In the course of our 4 year marriage, this will be our 4th move. I realized the other day that I’ve moved (on average) every 1 1/2 years since I was 18 years old.

The best part about moving is that it allows us to declutter, shed some of the unnecessary material things that clog our lives, and to start fresh with a new space and a new feel. The worst part about moving is how much it disrupts our daily routines, confuses the heck out of Everly (she cried when we took down all the pictures in her room) and compounds our stress because we have such limited time with both of our hands and all of our attention available to devote to it.

It feels weird not to have our house decorated for Christmas. Instead of stockings on the fireplace and a glittering tree, we have half empty rooms, all of the unsightly things you usually tuck away in attics and under beds pulled out in full view, and so many boxes scattered about.

The idea was to move close to the holidays so that I could take advantage of the almost 2 weeks vacation when my company shuts down for Christmas to unpack at our own pace. Now here we are in the thick of it, and it’s made me realize how much I love the ritual of decorating our home for Christmas. Without the tree and the garland and pulling each little ornament out to admire, it has felt very strange to me this year.

I tried to remind myself that the children are too small to feel like they are missing out and next year when we are all settled in, we can decorate the house head-to-toe… but last night, I couldn’t take it anymore. Most of all I’ve missed that warm, familiar glow from the tree when all the other lights in the house are out and so I grabbed some chalk and our kitchen chalkboard and made this:

I “hung” the lights with packing tape and sat on the floor in the bare room to admire it. This morning Brent plugged them in for Everly and she let a very enthusiastic “Ooooohhhhhhh!” and clapped her hands in approval. A good sprinkling of childhood wonderment during Christmas time was just what my soul was needing. It was a reminder that we don’t always need a big tree and a million decorations for our children to feel the magic of the holidays. Sometimes, just a few twinkling lights and a little imagination can do the trick.

Love,