Making room

I think I need to find a bigger place
Cause when you have
More than you think
You need more space

--lyrics from "Society" by Eddie Vedder (Into the Wild soundtrack)

Thankfully I don't subscribe to the lyrics above, always needing and wanting more, especially in the way of a house, or at least I check myself when what I have isn't enough. We don't live in a shoebox, nor do we live in a mansion (who would clean it?) but the space we have we fully utilize, so putting up the Christmas tree always involves some furniture rearranging.

Each year it's a little different and each year Kevin isn't keen on the idea and threatens to burn the piano if I make him move it one more time. Point taken. Somehow this year it was a quick and easy process and I need to take pictures so I remember how we did it for next year.

We know our jobs well by now. Kevin moves boxes in and furniture around and puts up the tree. (Yes, it's artificial due to his extreme allergies and my conscience when I realize I've killed a living thing.) I fluff the branches and put up the lights and the kids have a hay day with the ornaments. The bottom branches are dripping with them, hung 5 to a branch, backwards and nearly falling off, while the top remains bare. At some point I come along later and even things out, securing the heaviest and most breakable.

Every year I remember my favorite thing to do at Christmastime, which was to get all the way under the tree on my back and stare up the middle of it at all the ornaments and lights. I used to squint over and over to see how many different ways I could distort them, and every year I'm tempted to get back under the tree and do it again. Maybe this is the year it will actually happen.