Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Blue Decorations

Let me tell you about my mom.

My mom is an impulsive gal. She gets something in her head and BAM, done. Sound familiar? She decided a year or two ago, she wanted hardwood floors in their house. Two weeks later, they had hardwood floors. Most people would deliberate a while. Not my mother. She wants it, it’s done. And that is why I love her.

It was the same with our houses. I think I’ve mentioned I lived in about 10 different houses growing up. We rented, so when the lease was up, we’d, more often than not, move. I don’t know what Dad would say, but I know Mom would get bored with the houses. It's funny, I can still remember the names of the streets. Austin (rust colored carpet), Glenview (for two weeks and we were there over Halloween), Molina (grey arches on both sides of the fireplace), Remington (bushes out front that smelled like cat pee), Papoose (trampoline!), Whitefeather (on the golf course, 2nd hole), Something Bear (red kitchen countertops), Appaloosa (on the lake, hot tub – our own little mansion). Then I moved out on my own (and had three different addresses in three years).

I think I’m missing one between Austin and Glenview.

But I digress.

If you remember, I told you that when we first moved to Texas, we didn’t have a lot of money so Mom and I made Christmas decorations. But then Mom got her job as a legal secretary at a swanky law firm in downtown Houston and boy howdy, no more making decorations! We BOUGHT decorations.

You could say that the money went to our head.

One year, when we were living the Molina house, Mom got a wild hair and declared we were not doing red this year for Christmas. No sir. She wanted blue decorations. So off to TG&Y we went to buy blue lights, blue garland and blue ornaments. I wish I could find the picture of our house decked out in blue lights. The vision I have in my head is a little gloomy.

This is what I see in my head whenever I hear BB King’s “Blue Decorations”. Our blue Christmas.

The next year, Mom was over the blue and declared we would do white decorations. We did white for a few years in a row after that. Then Dad got all cranky because he had been begging for multicolored for years and we kept vetoing him, so we gave in and let him have his multicolored decorations. I’ve never been a fan of multicolored.

Anyway, I’m doing manual labor at work today and listening to my Christmas playlist on my iPod. And when “Blue Decorations” came on, I thought of our blue decorations on Molina Street.

Well, first I started shakin’ my booty.
Then I thought of the decorations.

3 comments:

The Mysterious Traveler said...

I remember the year I decided to switch from using multi-colored lights on the tree to tiny white lights. Ted (my first husband) was horrified. Said it looked like a tree for Yuppies.

He was lucky I didn't take after the neighbor we'd had when I was growing up in Falls Church, Virginia. Every year she did her entire yard, trees, and house in pale pink lights.

Lucy Leadskin said...

Love it. :) White lights are pretty, but boring. I'm a sucker for the multi. Even my 2' tinsel tree is rainbow flavored. (We have a proper, 4'-ish living tree, too, but sprinkled with multi-colored lights.)

This post brought to you by the veriword "shole" - a celebratory yell for when you've bought just the right pair of boots.

Anonymous said...

I actually like the blue Christmas decorations. Looks peaceful to me. I go back and forth on liking clear lights and multi lights - so my Christmas tree is perfect. I can have clear, multi, or both with a click of a remote! ;>)