I spent a good bit of time earlier this week "spending" my PowerBall winnings. I had serious internal debates about exactly how many houses I'd buy and where they'd be. I finally settled on an apartment in New York City (with a rooftop terrace, of course), a house on the Eastern Shore, a ski home out west, and a villa in southern Italy. I thought about how many cars we'd buy. I even decided to get a private plane to get us back and forth to all those homes.
Somehow, in all that daydreaming about the purchases I'd make to show off my new-found riches, I never stopped to consider the true indicator of personal wealth. It's not homes. It's not cars. It's not even planes. It's how many Christmas decorations you have.
We just finished a full afternoon of decorating the inside of the house. I think I made 20 trips up and down the basement stairs, lugging box after box of decorations to their rightful place in the house. We have one artificial tree for the upstairs landing and two for the front porch. We have yard after yard of greens to drape the front stairs and the back railing. There's a cranberry tree for the mantel, a pine cone tree for the study, and an apple tree for the living room. We have holly for the entertainment center, wreaths for the dining room and kitchen windows, and carolers for the piano. The list goes on and on. In fact, I think it would be simpler to list the Christmas decorations that we don't have.
We have so much stuff that we couldn't find the manger set amongst all the clutter. We searched high and low, wondering where it could have gone. For a moment, I thought that a certain someone who, several years ago, had kidnapped our baby Jesus and held him for ransom had decided to go all out this year and take Joseph, Mary, the shepherds, wise men, and cattle, too. Thankfully, after a brief period of panic, we found the entire set in with a box of Christmas knick-knacks. Crisis averted.
Tomorrow, it's out to the tree farm and then one last burst of decorating. I really can't wait -- it all looks great.
This is where the magic happens.
