Well, my ever-efficient and very practical husband long ago decided that Christmas is not precisely his favorite holiday. So it was certainly perplexing that last night he became quite intent upon decorating for the occasion. Given my love all things festive, I was happy to oblige when he asked me to find his two Christmas shoe boxes in storage.
With lightning speed that only Santa could muster on the eve of Christmas itself, Adam opened the boxes and whipped out chains of beads, snow flakes on string, gold garland, silver garland, white lights, icicle lights, colored lights, snow globes, and, (oh my!) an armadillo Santa.
In five minutes flat, half of the decorations were up - strings of bead were across the kitchen door (Yes, I had to do the limbo to get in and out of the kitchen), lights were wrapped around the linen hamper, the lamppost, the bookshelf, draped from the bookshelf to the balcony door, and run across the carpet on the couch beneath the floor!
Four more minutes, and the stockings were hung on the shutter doors, the snowflakes on string were woven with the maroon beads around the small kitchen window. The kitchen stand had lights wrapped around its legs and my (I mean, our) bedroom window had bright icicle lights resting on the curtain rod.
For the last two minutes Adam sang, really quickly - as quickly as he poked lights under and over the furniture appendages, as quickly as he wrapped beads around the kitchen shutter windows, "The first noel...the angel did say..."
And then it was done. In nine minutes flat, the Monaghan home was ready for its first Christmas.
