As you may know from my previous posts, I am obsessed with Christmas, more specifically Christmas trees.  Sunday morning I drove to Delaware to spend the week in my office there and celebrate Christmas with our office party on Wednesday.  I went to the office first because we are in the throws of a competitive decorating contest and my team’s theme is Harry Potter Christmas. (I know nothing about Harry Potter!)  We spent almost 2 hours decorating and it looked beautiful.  Amanda puts my Christmas spirit to shame.

We finished up and I headed to my hotel. You can imagine my dismay upon entering my hotel room when I was assaulted with the barrenness of  a Christmas-less room.

I was having none of that. Not happening.  I unpacked, ordered some dinner and set out for Target. I had all I could do to contain myself from carrying out a 7 foot pre-light alpine tree. It wasn’t a question of IF I should do it, it was HOW do I get this home after I get it into my hotel room?  It could be grounds for divorce- adding yet one more Christmas tree to our already overloaded electrical circuits. So I settled on a small, Charlie Brown tree and two strings of LED lights. I  decorated this little tree and the shelf above it and sat back to admire my work. Ahhhh.

This little piece of Christmas cheer has offset the sounds, thank God I never saw the sights, of my neighbor who I imagine is sitting his in boxers as he coughs up a lung from 9pm to around 3 am. His TV is so loud I can’t hear myself think. I was tempted to leave a bottle of cough medicine at his door and ring and run. That coupled with the dog barking upstairs and the owner screaming at him, like he understands.  At least this time I did not look out the window to see a fireman on the hook and ladder looking at me in my bed and checking to see if the elevator shaft was on fire. Small miracles.

I worked until about 5:45 tonight and headed back to the hotel. Upon entering my room I found my little tree lit up waiting for me in the dark. I poured a glass of wine and sat down to a lovely salad from Piazza Mia and I took a deep breath. I  miss my family, Izzy and the explosion of Christmas in my house but this will do.  It really isn’t about how big or how much, it’s about the spirit of it. Don’t get me wrong, I love that it takes me 20 minutes just to turn everything on and my house can probably be seen from space but this little tree with some Christmas music in the background  make it magic. It’s all in the magic.