It’s raining outside. The wind and rain awoke me early this morning with a sound that I haven’t heard in a while. To those who were born in different parts of the country and lived elsewhere for a time, I’m sure you notice it, too. The weather can sound very different in different parts of the country.
While it’s not snowing in Seattle right now, it’s definitely the cusp of winter. I not only feel it in my bones, but I can hear it as well. Maybe I’m just more attuned to the sound of weather than most, or perhaps others just don’t take the time to hear it. But it’s there, and it speaks volumes about a season.
This is the first time in a decade that I have felt in the holiday spirit. I’ve written about how hard it is to be in the spirit where it’s 75 degrees and sunny. I’m sure that those who were born into that weather or who escape the dreary weather of the Northeast each year can do it, but not I.
The problem is, the weather in Seattle isn’t all that crummy. We don’t get a hundred inches of snow like upstate New York does. We don’t get a lot of ice or sleet. Ice storms are an extreme rarity and a huge windstorm that knocks the power out is not an annual occurrence.
The weather is pretty mild really. Gray skies, some rainy days. It’s really rainy now. The last two weeks of November and the first weeks of December are our rainiest. Then it slacks off, at least historically. Locals will assure you that it doesn’t, but at least according to the weather service, it does.
We were out and about yesterday, picking up a few things at the store. We were in the Christmas section, the Janmeister and I, and we were picking up a few decorating ideas that I had thought up. As we stepped outside, the weather was characteristically brisk. The subject turned to when we should get the tree.
I admit that I have been a bit reluctant to go tree shopping. Picking up a tree is an art form. You can’t get it too early as it will mostly like die on you. Get it too late, and all the nice trees are gone, only the Charlie Brown trees are left. A real quality tree can cost about $45 here, though the Chubby & Tubby lot two blocks away still sells decent trees. They were $5 twenty years ago. They are $15 now. Nice to know some things don’t change.
And then there are the needles. In the house, in the car. I was beginning to quickly talk myself out of a real tree. Unfortunately, all the good “sustainable” trees are usually gone. But I suggested that we head to the home improvement store anyway, just to see what they had.
They had the perfect tree at the perfect price. A Martha Stewart wonder of greenery, complete with tufts of berries and faux cones. And it was only $199 with self-healing lights built in.
SOLD!
We headed back home and all the rest of our day’s plans fell by the wayside. Before I knew it, we were assembling the tree, playing Christmas music, lighting the fire and full of holiday spirit.
It certainly came as a surprise to me. Outside of the first Christmas with the Janmeister, Christmas had been lackluster for me for many years. In Port Orchard, I was too busy running a new business and chasing after a toddler to bother with a tree. In Melbouring I know there was a faux tree, but I don’t remember a thing about it. The gift of the passage of time blocks many of those memories.
The hilarity of my first Christmas with Janarama cemented my memories of that year. After assembling the three pieces of tree and fluffing it, the first ornament to go on the tree is the one I made of our single bed from that year, the one that we slept on, check, tried to sleep on, out on the deck when the house was packed full of kids and relatives. It still gets the prized position on the front center of tree.
Being that we are in a new house, well, new to us, some serious thought must go into the decoration, as it will likely be repeated from here on out. The column ended up with a candy caned ribboning, new garlands were purchased to go above the hutch and on the sash of the windows, and a few other pieces were added here and there, some that had been brought up from Florida, others new to us, thanks in large part to Lowes, Fred Meyer and Hobby Lobby.
I must say that it looks like a classic Northwest Christmas in the house. There is no view of the Atlantic Ocean and brilliant sun to ruin the effect. The living room and the dining room look as if it were plucked from a holiday postcard. Bonus round to the gas fireplace, which we didn’t have in Florida; few people do.
And with this facelift came one of my own. I have a big smile on my face. I am so loving the holidays as I said, for the first time in probably a decade. If only there were presents under the tree, the effect would be complete.
There’s not. I don’t even know if there will be many. While the holiday feels traditional, our children’s needs don’t require boxes these days, only chargeable gift cards. And while the Janmeister and I had planned to give one another gifts this year – a vast departure from tradition – we can’t figure out a way to shove the new sofa and love seat under the tree or how to wrap it.
But I do look forward to Santa bringing them to our house. His elves will be delivering them before Christmas. We don’t have to lift a finger. And I can safely say that comfortable furniture that doesn’t require us to move it after moving 3,000 miles across the country, is perhaps the best gift of all. At least the best gift outside of the holiday spirit I have been blessed with once more.
In the Emerald City, grinchless,
– Robb