The hectic call to decorate for Christmas from the fabulous musical, Mame, never fails to stream on my mental playlist come December.

Out of necessity, we sit down with the calendar in mid-November and start inserting dates: The Daughter’s piano recital, Young Musicians of Virginia (YMV) concerts and Jazz Ensemble performances; dates for decorating the grandparents’ trees, one or two days to take Grandma Midge shopping (since she doesn’t drive), American Heritage Girls Triple R Ranch cookout and caroling at Chesapeake Place, Lessons & Carols at St. John’s, and neighborhood parties. By the time we’ve recorded all of the myriad activities and events, we don’t have much white space left in the month of December, and we begin feeling the pinch in terms of time and energy.

The choice is to get stressed or to get Christmas….right this very minute, candles at the window, carols at the spinet…

So, we haul out the reindeer, put up the brightest roof lights that you’ve ever seen, order the pizza, it’s time we draped those silver beads off of every bough…

Yep, yards and yards of

silver beads for

Grandma Midge’s tree.

Up on the housetop, Mr. Garner pauses….

Sing we…

Papa G looking through

#1 Son watches The Daughter

Do all the work on Papa Gene’s tree.

Whew! Finally got The Garner tree done!