Last night I made a Christmas CD that I've been using as background music for the past 24 hours of my life. Good times, good times. I'm quite proud of my compilation, although the four different versions of Carol of the Bells (Hark, Silver Bells) may be a bit much for some. What can I say, it's my favorite Christmas tune. Also on the mix is the Hallelujah Chorus, some Tchaikovsky, a bit of Trans-Siberian Orchestra, and a lot of Manheim Steamroller. Like I said, good times are being had.
In other holiday news, I brought the Grammy Orbs out of the basement today. We are shamefully behind on our decorating this year, but I made a big push today and now all that's left is to put ornaments on the tree (rigging up the lights - the second thing at Christmas that's such a pain to me - wore us out). There's a bow at the top of the tree with a God's eye I made when I was in grade school, and one or two other ornaments made it before we crashed.
No Grammy Orbs on the tree yet, but they'll get there tomorrow.
What? You say you've never heard of Grammy Orbs? Gasp!
My great-grandmother used to buy those cheap foam Christmas balls that are covered in colored thread. Then she'd decorate them with beads and ribbons using more pins than a voodoo priestess. Being an elderly retired woman living along with not so much as a house cat, she had a LOT of time to make orbs. Each year her four children would receive boxes full of Grammy Orbs (which would proceed to be passed on to their children). A few years into the hobby and we had orbs coming out our asses.
Since Grammy Evans visited our house every year for Christmas, we had to start getting creative with the orbs. There simply wasn't enough room on our 8ft Christmas tree for them all! (We should've just built a tree out of the orbs.) We hung pine rope from the doorways, decorated and strung it with lights on the outside windows and doors, dangled Grammy orbs from the inside doorways. Grammy Orbs hung from chandeliers, rolled across table tops, piled in baskets. If ever there was an orb not displayed, she'd know. She seemed to remember every one she ever made, and on a few occasions asked to see a certain orb (always a different one, always one not out) "Oh my gosh!" My grandmother would exclaim, "How could we miss this entire box of orbs? We'll have to put them out at once!"
For the record, I always loved the Grammy Orbs (except for one particularly gaudy pink one). The rest of the family, eh, not so much. Maybe it was the stress of having to be so creative decorating with them. It was more of a joke around the family, "Did you get your gift from Grandmother yet? *snicker*)
Still, there was a deep love, if not for the orbs, than for Grammy. She passed on some years ago, but her orbs still decorate the house at Christmas time. Not as many, but Gram has kept her favorites and dumps them out of a box into some baskets by the door each year exclaiming, "There mother, there are your orbs!" I love the orbs because they are a memory, they may not all be beautiful, but the thought is.
It is the thought that matters.
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