Christmas Begins

Friday, November 23, 2007

The day after Thanksgiving was traditionally put to good use in the Snicketts’ household by resurrecting the Christmas tree. The Christmas tree and boxfuls of many other decorations. Collette and Puck arrived on the scene that morning to find no less than seventeen boxes of loot spread from the basement steps to the far corners of the living room, spilling over with ornaments, wreaths, lights, candles, and ribbons. When it came to Christmas decorating, no one really minded helping with the Christmas trees, especially the aluminum Christmas tree. But as far as all the rest of the decorations, Mom saw to those. By the end of the day, the house was full of Christmas cheer from one side to the other.

Puck was tremendously interested in the altered environment. So many boxes to explore. This obligated Collette to place him in his play pen for most of the morning where he watched the activity. Later, he was mildly entertained by Collette’s and Linnea’s hand/puppet show through the netting walls of his little station.

Frances had not been having the sunniest of days. He thought he owed Mom an apology:

“Mom,” he sighed. “I’m sorry for being so optimistic today.”

This brought a good laugh from Mom and Frances was, of course, forgiven.