The most wonderful time of the year

When I was a little girl, I loved the Christmas season. Setting up the tree, hanging our stockings, Christmas music, relatives coming over and lots and lots of food.

Having to sort out the branches of our plastic tree ("Is that red paint or orange on that tip?") was a big portion of the setting up of the tree. Mom would always string the lights and us kids could barely contain ourselves until she was done so we could hang the ornaments. We each had our own special ornaments, given to us every year by Mom. When we were finally done with the ornaments, we'd wrap the whole thing in silver garland. As a final touch, Dad would put the silver, uh, thingy on top. We didn't have a star or an angel. It was a, well I don't know what the hell it was. It was silver though, and it had a big round part that was open on two sides. That round thing was full of some sort of asbestos insulation I think. And then we would shove one of the lights up inside it and the asbestos would glow creating a magical feeling of awe. Either that or we were overcome by toxic fumes. Anyway, it was magical.

Things have been modified slightly in my own house. We get a real tree every year so that Master J can have the fun of helping to pick it out. I string the lights myself while Master J waits impatiently nearby asking when he can start hanging the ornaments. We gave up using garland early in our marriage due to the horror of having cats running throught the house with shiny silver ribbons trailing from their backsides. But most importantly, I don't have a silver, roundy, stuffed full of asbestos thingy to put on top of my tree. I think I have an angel, but I haven't found it yet this year. I really miss the thingy. Wonder whatever happened to it?