Day 64: It was an accident – Decorating for Christmas

My Project: 365 Creative Writing Prompts

Day 64: It was an accident – Decorating for Christmas

There’s been an accident at our house. Something gruesome really ... St. Joseph got decapitated.

It happened last Friday. Being December 1^st, we thought the time had come to bring out the Christmas tree and decorate the house. Don’t imagine this as easy, because it’s a huge job.

First of all, Dieter had to get the tree out of the storage cabinet which is a job in itself. The cabinet is stuffed to the gills with ... stuff. In addition to boxes with Easter decorations and boxes with Halloween decorations, there is stuff such as a fan, a heater, crutches, old curtains, lamps, blankets, cat carriers, etc. To get to the Christmas tree and decorations, all this had to come out.

Once the Christmas tree was out of its box, the branches needed unfolding. Another big job that kept us busy for at least half an hour.

Then, while Dieter decorated the living room, I put the balls in the tree. This under close inspection of our four cats: Mickey, Charlotte, Gabriel, and Holly who couldn’t wait to get their paws on the balls.

While decorating the tree, I suddenly heard a crash followed by “Oh shit.”

“What happened?” I asked.

“St. Joseph got decapitated,” Dieter said.

I rushed over and sure enough, there was St. Joseph, on the floor and his head was nowhere to be found. Oh well, I was sure it would turn up and if it didn’t I could just buy another St. Joseph.

While looking at the Christmas stable, I noticed something very strange. There was something profoundly wrong with our nativity scene. The stable had a St. Joseph (minus his head), a virgin Mary, three kings, three shepherds, an ox and a sheep, but ... there were two mangers in front of Mary and Joseph.

“Two mangers?” I turned to Dieter. “Since when did the virgin Mary have twins?

“I was at the store,” Dieter said. “I couldn’t remember whether we had a manger or not, so I bought one. Seems a shame to let the extra manger go to waste.”

I had no comeback for this. So, the extra manger stayed and apparently, in our house baby Jesus now has a little brother or sister. (No disrespect intended, I assure you.)

With the tree set up and the house decorated, Dieter decided to put lights in the annex of the living room and lights on the balcony. He was about to start with the lights for the annex when I looked at the string, mentally measured the walls of the annex and ... the string seemed too long.

“I don’t think that is the right string,” I said. “I think the string that you’re holding with the blue, green and purple lights is for the balcony and the string over there with blue, green, orange and red lights is for the annex.”

“No,” Dieter said. “This is the string for the annex and that string is for the balcony. Look, there’s a tiny bit of white paint on this light, meaning it’s from the balcony.” And off he went.

Putting up the lights went accompanied by a whole lot of sighing, moaning and occasional swearing when the hammer missed the nail and knocked a finger instead.

When the string of lights indeed proved to be too long, Dieter got creative and worked a design into the display. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t good either. Oh well, it would have to do.

Next Dieter put on a jacket and was now going to string the lights along the balcony. Within minutes he came back inside with the announcement ... “The string is too short. You were right, the annex string is for outside and this string is for inside.” Hm, tell me something I didn’t know. But you know men ... they don’t want to hear “I told you so.”

Then again, I made a mistake of my own. I placed an angel on top of the lamp lighting the nativity scene.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Dieter said. “That angel is gonna fall.”

“We’ll see,” I said. “It seems pretty sturdy to me.”

I was wrong. Last night when I went to unplug the balcony lights, I suddenly felt a profound thump on my head. After having rubbed the sore spot I looked and there she was ... the angel smiling up at me from the floor. Her face almost said “Gotcha.”

On Sunday morning, we woke up to the sound of something falling and rolling. Even before I came into the living room I knew what it was and who the culprit was ... Holly had knocked a ball off the Christmas tree and was now batting it around in a way that would have made David Beckham jealous.

Charlotte was also playing with something. Batting it, chasing it, and batting it some more. She had such fun that, at first, I let her play, but when I saw what she was playing with, I had to put a stop to it ... St. Joseph’s head. Don’t worry, doctor Dieter and superglue remedied the situation and all is well with the holy family.

www.connymanero.weebly.com

Halloween decorating ideas for the office

While you can go all out decorating your house for Halloween, you might have to tone it down a bit with Halloween decorating ideas for the office.  After all, the office is a place of business where management meets clients, customers or patients.

That is not to say that you cannot bring a little atmosphere in your office or cubicle.  In fact, a few tasteful ornaments might gain you popularity.

To start off, you might want to decide on a good place to decorate.  This can be a corner of your desk, the top of a filing cabinet, a windowsill, or even some floor space.

To create the right setting, start off with either a black or an orange piece of cardboard.  If you mainly want to use decorations such as ravens, bats or spiders, black is your best choice.  If on the other hand you are thinking of using or pumpkins, jack-o-lanterns, or other colorful items, then orange cardboard will be better suited.  Creating contrast is key.

A word of advice though, be sympathetic to your colleagues’ feelings.  If you know of someone who has a phobia for spiders, best not to use them.  You don’t want to give someone heart failure when coming face to face with a lifelike tarantula. 

However, if nobody in your area is afraid of spiders, they make for great decorations.  You can have them sitting on your desk, crawling on walls, dangling from the ceiling, whatever you fancy.

Alternatively you can use witches and scarecrows.  Nobody is likely to go screaming when they see a witch or scarecrow in your office and they make for great, colorful decorations.  Along with witches you can add little details such as cauldrons, poison bottles, broomsticks and apples.

Other Halloween decorations for the office could be a touch of the sinister.  How about some coffins or headstones?  To jazz things up bit you could add a ghost or two. 

Then there are the ever popular vampires.  Whether you work with dolls or pictures, nothing says Halloween like a blood sucking creature.  To give extra character to your display, you could make use of a few bats and goblets filled with some type of red liquid. 

If management doesn’t allow creepy Halloween decorations for the office, you could just stick to pumpkins and jack-o-lanterns.  Providing you have the space, you could have the real thing in your office or cubicle, or you could have pictures or a banner.

If you don’t overdo it, most offices will have no problem with having a few decorations.  Keep it simple, keep it tasteful and be considerate. 

www.connymanero.weebly.com

Homemade Easter Decorations

Just as millions of people decorate their homes for Christmas, so does Easter ask for creating a little atmosphere for the occasion.  To be original or to save money, you can make Easter decorations yourself.  It is fun, it is easy and it is something to do with the kids.

Most of what is needed you will already have around the house and where it comes to fun little projects like this, there will be no shortage of eager little hands to help either.

Continue reading at:

http://connymanero.weebly.com/blog/homemade-easter-decorations

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

  

Putting up the Christmas tree

Last night was that time of the year again …time to put up the Christmas tree.

First order of business, retrieving the tree from the storage room.  Of course the box was buried all the way in the back, under a ton of other stuff.  While trying to get to the boxed tree, we found – among other things – a box.  "Oh here are the Halloween decorations."

Another complication, while trying to get the tree out of the room, was juggling a few cats who wanted to get into the room.  “Move Mickey!”
"No Gabriel, you can’t go in there!”
“Out of the way Charlotte!”  Their ears were apparently on their backsides, but eventually they joined Charlie and Chanel who were keeping an eye on things from a distance.

When the tree was assembled phase one could start … opening all the tree branches.  Don’t ask me how long it took, but it was a prickly, dusty affair accompanied by several sneezes.  Next year, before putting the tree away, I’ll put him on the balcony for a while so the wind can blow him out.

Now for the lights.  The plug was plugged in and … oh oh, while the top section and the bottom section lit up with white LAD lights, the middle section did not.  Fortunately there were some spare lights. 
“You’re gonna have to go through them, one by one, and see where the faulty one is,” I said to Dieter.  He responded with “Say what?”
Fifteen minutes later the middle section of the tree lit up.  I’ll spare you the coversation Dieter had with the lights.

Next up, a red ribbon.  We can’t use tinsel or angel hair for the tree on account of the cats.  They grab it and chew it.  So, to prevent an emergency visit to the vet’s office we had to come up with an alternative.  Last year we used pearls, but that wasn’t quite the success I thought it was going to be.  So, this year we would try a ribbon.  It was rather nice until Charlotte came along, carefully reached out with a white paw and made a “little” adjustment.  “Charlotte, don’t do that.  Just look, don’t touch!”

Finally, the decorations.  The theme … red and gold.  Small balls on top, bigger balls in the middle, even bigger balls on the bottom.  A ball here, a star there, some tear drops, some birds … yep, that looked nice.  “Charlotte, don’t touch!  I said just look.”  “Gabriel!  Where’re you’re going with that ball?  Drop it.  Drop it!  Don’t do that!”

Now for the angel on top.  Where is the angel?  Must be in one of the boxes with other decorations.  Oh I’ll look for the angel tomorrow.

Halloween shopping

Nearly twelve years we’ve been in Canada and for the first time we’re gonna decorate for Halloween. Previous years we may have hung a spooky little something on the front door, or placed a little pumpkin on the coffee table, but that was pretty much it.

Being from Europe we don’t actually celebrate Halloween. In Belgium we observe All Saints on November first and All Souls on November second by way of a trip to the cemetery. No, not to scare the living daylights out of visiting mourners, to place flowers on loved one’s’ graves. A beautiful sight it is too, when the dull cemetery is transformed into a sea of flowers. Mostly white, yellow or purple chrysanthemums .

But not this year, this year we’re throwing our heart and soul into decorating. In preparation for the big day, or big night, we did a little shopping. Most stores were a bit of a disappointment though. Other than a few pumpkins, cauldrons and face masks they didn’t stock any Halloween decorations. So we went to the one store where I thought we might have more luck ... the dollar store.

They usually go all out with their Christmas and Easter decorations, so I figured they would stock an abundance of Halloween decorations too. And I was right, the dollar store held aisles and aisles of decorations: crows, rats, cats, bats, spiders, jack o lanterns, bloody severed limbs, gravestones, etc. etc. etc.
Short of the bloody limbs and the spiders, we got a bit of everything. We walked out of that store with two big bags to the value of $46, so you can imagine.

Part of the decorations will be for home and part will be for our work cubicles.  We can do more decorating at work than we can at home because at work we don’t have five cats roaming around, taking an interest in anything and everything. I mean, we could place some decorations on top of cabinets and tables at home, but how long would they remain standing? Not long, I can tell you that. Birds, rats and cats would be knocked off their socks; bats would take a flying leap; and as for graveyard stones and jack o lanterns ... let’s just say they wouldn’t live long.

So we’ll be doing some decorating tomorrow and the rest will be taken to work. It’s a safer environment for the scary bits there.