Quite some time ago, I had a friend who was really into unicorns. One Christmas, while wandering through a Carlton Cards store (which we used to have in Chicago, but they've all long since vanished here), I found a lovely and elegant Christmas unicorn.
So lovely and elegant, if fact, that I seriously contemplated keeping her for myself.
That would, of course, have been supremely selfish of me, so the Christmas unicorn was given as planned and received with much apparent approval and joy. I still wanted one for myself, but I was out of luck--Carlton didn't have anymore in stock, and stops at several other Carlton stores yielded no better results.
Fortunately for me, though, Carlton reissued that unicorn the following year and for a few holiday seasons after that, tweaking the color of the paint job a little each time. That next year, I had my unicorn and kept it high and prominent on my tree every year.
That is, in those years when I bothered with a tree at all.
This is not one of those years.
The reasons for this vary from year to year. Sometimes, I know that I'll be too busy during the holiday season and won't be around La Casa del Terror often enough to enjoy the decorations. Some years, the holiday spirit is extinguished early because of my job or my love life (or, more accurately and perpetually, the lack thereof) or whatever. And some years, I can't find a proper space in La Casa to place my "big" tree (and by "big," I mean the three-footer, as opposed to Grandma's 18-inch lighted tree, which stands in the living room window every year).
This year? A little bit of each.
My hours at work have been long. The personal loneliness/horniness that's always nibbling away at the periphery is front and center and nasty as can be (and not in a good way). And even though I cleaned the apartment thoroughly in October and have kept it reasonable straight since then, there is no open space where the "big" tree will properly fit.
The "big" tree, therefore, remains in its box in the closet, as does the aluminum tree, which is just as tall and even more of a pain in the yuletide to set up.
Still, I wanted the Christmas unicorn on display somewhere in La Casa, so now it's hanging out (quite literally) in my bathroom. An odd place to hang a Christmas ornament, I'll grant, but every time I see it, it makes me smile--and these days, I'll take all the smiles I can muster.
1 comment:
Brother, I understand what you mean about not having the kind of Christmas spirit that compels us to decorate every available space with holiday cheer. But this year, the first since before I had to move December 2009, I actually bought six window stickers for one of my two windows. I even sent out Christmas cards to those closest to me--thanks to charities that believe that I will dig out some change in return for their "gifts" of cards and address labels. I no longer feel guilty about not being able to. I'm not going to talk about the future joys coming in your direction the way I usually do, Instead I'm going to merely look forward to the joys coming our way on December 23. And you know that neither is easy for me.
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