Poshdeluxe

music for xmas tree beautification [click the play button]

when i go home for thanksgiving, i get excited about a lot of things, like:

1) eating pie (three kinds!!)

2) going to bed dorkaliciously early (10:30, yo)

3) visiting the movie theater constantly (although one thanksgiving my dad and i just had an alien marathon at home, which kicked the crap out of “it’s a wonderful life”)

4) hanging out with the fam (obvs)

but one of my most favorite things is decorating our xmas tree. it looks like this:

basically, if you get up close, you will see the story of our family. in one sentence, that story would be, “sarah is SUCH an only child.”

i love our tree because nothing matches, because some of the ornaments are broken, because my grandmother adored making things with sequins and shiny beads (thus, my penchant for All Things That Sparkle). when i was a child, i used to lay under the tree, with my head on the tree skirt my grandmother crafted (a sequined nativity scene, of course) and just stare up through the lights and dangles. i felt surrounded by my own holiday world, a safe, sweet place of cookies and ribbons and people laughing in the distance.

sometimes i still visit that place, even though my body doesn’t quite fit under the tree anymore.

therefore, in the spirit of holiday pantsing, i want to share a few of my favorite ornaments with you.

first and EXTREMELY foremost (as she would demand) comes my all time first best ornament, the Miss Piggy Angel.

every year, i would absolutely SQUEAL (much like miss piggy, actually) whenever i saw the box, i mean, mansion that she lives in for most of the year. the diva is always ALWAYS in a prominent place on the tree.

Facts About This Ornament: her wings are fuzzy, and she has a “real” diamond ring on her finger– over her purple glove!

next comes my second favorite, which, surprise surprise, is food-related.

yes, it’s a v. v. sparkley ice cream cone. i remember picking out this ornament at the store when i was little, because basically i just really really wanted to eat it.

Fact About This Ornament: you cannot eat it.

as a child, my mom would take me to one of the holiday stores in lafayette to pick out an ornament for every christmas. my fine taste is evident, even after all of these years, in the disco heart:

this ornament pretty much screams, “a seven-year old girl thinks i’m totally rad!”

Fact About This Ornament: unfortunately, it does not automatically spin like a real disco ball.

like most parents, my mom and dad still love Every Single Thing I Ever Made As a Child… even if most critics would refer to it as “absolute crap” or “an abomination of art as we know it.”

exhibit a:

what, you thought there was just ONE ice cream cone on our tree? please. do you even KNOW me?

so i made this ornament in (i think) the third grade. and YES that is a real ice cream cone. from when i was in the third grade. which means… well, gross.

Fact About This Ornament: this is actually NOT the ice cream cone i originally made for my parents. the one i handcrafted for them disintegrated into dust by 2001. LUCKILY FOR OUR FAMILY LEGACY, i ALSO made one for my grandmother at the same time, and she, as grandmothers are prone to do, took much better care of her ornament. after she passed away, we put it on our tree. i predict that soon my parents will place it in air-tight container, safe from the further ravages of time.

exhibit b:

you may not know it, but the technical term for this object is “bluie.”

Facts About This Ornament: A bluie is actually a used fabric sheet, the name stemming from the blue coloring of the object.

My grandmother would save me piles of bluies when i was a kid because i LOVED playing with them. i’m not kidding. i would stack them up to make pens for my plastic zoo animals or blaze trails through the house. Due to the significant role played by bluies in my life, it naturally became necessary to immortalize one in the form of a xmas ornament.

you have one on yr tree too, right?

we also have a lot of star wars ornaments, because my family is full of awesome nerds.

trust me, if they made a mulder and scully ornament, we would buy it.

and, last but not least, the Hand of Sarah:

i love the fact that i opened my hand too wide so my pinky didn’t quite make it. straight outta 1982!!!

since i adore my family’s tree so much, of course i have my own miniature version. since 1989, my mom has given me tiny ornaments… which means decorating now, in 2006, requires a lot of manual labor. enter: my awesome friends.

during our usual felicity girls night on monday, jessica, kiersten and kc festivized my apartment while we drank spiced wine and ate cookies. oh it was wonderful!

Fact About Christmas: my heart rejoices.