Taming the Grinch within

I have always despised Christmas music, as long as I can remember. I assume, though, that when I was a little kid I liked it.  I do like Christmas, just not the music that accompanies the holiday.

My mother played constant Christmas music, from the day after Thanksgiving clear to the New Year. I attribute my disdain for Christmas music to this inundation. Sorry Mom, I don't mean to hurt your feelings, but it's true. The sound sends irritation up my spine.

I once worked in a retail store in downtown Gunnison called Blue Addiction. Along with every other retailer in the U.S., Christmas music was mandatory torture for at least three weeks out of the year. The owner, Susan, allowed me to bring in instrumental music to play thinking that was Christmas-y enough. Good ol' Garcia & Grisman for the holidays. Thank the Buddha for that!

Today, being the Sunday after Thanksgiving, I decided it was time to set up the Christmas tree - for the second year in a row! Having a two-year-old makes it hard to Ba-humbug to the fullest. As soon as I set it up she said, "It's Christmas, Santa's coming." That, for some reason, kinda made me want to play Christmas music....I quickly snapped out of it...and found the Garcia & Grisman.

We have a very small house, so a small tree is all we need. My husband acquired the perfect tree for us - during his bachelorism ironically. It's about 6 feet tall, plastic, very dusty, and came equipped with its very own African American Santa. That's my favorite part of Christmas these days - my black Santa.

While I was erecting our tree, Lars piped in with some constructive criticism. He said I had put too many ornaments on the tree. I stood back and thought, What am I going to do with all of them then? He suggested we hang a few blue sparkly ones from our blue lights on the porch. Good idea...and I will get to that later this week...maybe.

I still wonder though, can there be too many blue balls in the world?