NEWS

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After a fabulous eleven days visiting family in Denver and Los Angeles, I found myself sitting at LAX the Sunday after Thanksgiving, one of the busiest travel days of the year. Two hours to wait at the gate, four plus hours in the air, home late Sunday night to face a very busy week.

But now it was time to start The List – all of the things I needed to do in the upcoming days in order to make up for being gone and to prepare for December and the holidays. The list included the usual jobs like watering the plants, going to the grocery store, replying to emails, preparing for classes, changing the sheets, but the most daunting item by far was last on the list: decorate.

As many of you know, this is an all-encompassing word. It requires making at least ten trips up the ladder to the cold attic, carrying heavy boxes down the ladder and empty ones back up the ladder, finding batteries for some of the musical decorations, replacing burnt out strands of lights (usually just half the strand doesn’t work), stringing the lights and garland, getting out the Christmas candles, putting decorations on the tree (and climbing up on the stool for the higher lights and the angel), placing precious memories in the same places they have been for the last fifty years, putting together the Santa and his sleigh, replacing the bathrooms with festive mats and towels, hanging the wreaths (did I mention there are six outside doors in my house?). It’s a two-three-day project most of the time.

As I drove into the driveway about 9:00 PM on that cold and dark Sunday night, I accepted the fact that decorating the house would have to wait until the basic chores were finished. But what to my wondering eyes should appear…

But a brightly lit and decorated tree in my window, and then I saw the reindeer (with the red bow) on my front porch. I unlocked the door with excitement and awe. Some special elves had decorated my entire house—from the lights, to the Santas, the candles, the wreaths, the coffee mugs, the nativity scenes, Woody, the Santa hats on the New Zealand sculptures, little hats and scarves on the three wine bottles, and even the elf legs that hang out of the back of my red Miata.

My list just became very short.

These elves are the best: granddaughter Zoe (age 15) and grandson Miles (age 13). Zoe helps me every year with the decorations, so she knew where everything needed to go, while Miles helped with the heavy lifting. I think this secret project took several days, but they did an amazing job, and they even returned the empty boxes to the attic.

What a loving and special Christmas gift! I can only hope they will be as excited about taking everything down after the New Year!

(Hmm…maybe I should plan to be out of town again around that time.)