If You Leave a Girl Alone...

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!
(I'm a little early, I know, but the "Christmas Spirit" has just hit me.)

Every year I get annoyed by Christmas. At first...

I see all the crazy post-Thanksgiving sales, and stories in the news about people getting into trouble all over the place due to holiday mayhem. I get sick and tired of stupid, eager, greedy people giving Christmas a bad name.
Eventually, the "spirit of Christmas" hits, and I get to a point where I can ignore all the stories...stories of people being trampled by impatient shoppers, rumors of governors deceiving their states, assumptions of politicians lying, once again, to the entire population...etc.

Well, my friends, the spirit has hit.

* * *

Last night, I had the sudden urge to light a fire. My dad is out of town, my mom was relaxing for the night, my sister was busy, and my friend was helping her.

I just needed something to do, and I was cold.
A fire would be the logical decision to fix both problems, correct?

Well, it was kind of like "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie".
If you've ever read that book, it goes on a wild goose chase, saying that if you give a mouse a cookie, then he'll want a glass of milk, and then toast and jam, etc etc etc...

Here's my rendition of the story.

"IF YOU LEAVE A GIRL ALONE."
By: Esther Moore


If leave a girl alone,

She's going to want something to do.



When she has something to do,

She'll probably want to keep warm.



When she's warm,

She'll want someone to keep her company.



Then she'll want to do something while she has the help around.

When she has the help, she'll go all out and get A LOT done.



After getting a lot done, she'll want to clean up afterward.

She'll want to vacuum, dust, fold blankets.She might get carried away and clean every room in the house. She may even end up putting up Christmas decorations!



When she's done, she'll probably want to watch TV.

You'll have to fix her a spot to sit, and turn all the Christmas lights off so they don't reflect in the TV screen.
She'll sit down, make herself comfortable, and wiggle a few times to settle in.



She'll probably ask you for the remote.

So you'll hand her the remote, and she'll ask for a blanket.



When she gets the blanket, she'll get so excited and warm and want hot chocolate.

She'll ask if you want any.



She'll get up and make hot chocolate.

When the hot chocolate is finished, she'll tell you to wait while she takes a bathroom break.



When she comes back, she'll want to watch something different, which means she will need...

to change the channel.



She'll enjoy the new show so much that she'll sit back and admire it.

Which will remind her how cold she is.



And then she'll probably want something to warm her up,

and something to do to help.










THE END.


* * * * * * * * * *
An Explanation:

Last night I had a friend over, and they were helping my sister cook dinner. I got lonely in the living room which in turn made me bored, lonely, and cold.

I decided to light a fire.
Excellent choice.

I also decided to put Christmas decorations up, because (sadly) if I didn't, who would?
First, I rearranged furniture, so there was a PLACE for Christmas. I moved chairs, couches, cleared the fireplace mantel, and vacuumed the whole room. It looked cleeeeean, and baaaare.

This had to be fixed.

After about 45 minutes of searching for the Christmas tree, I found it and had it up in about ten minutes. I then arranged all of the branches, etc, to look fuller than it was in the box. I plugged it in (yes, we have a fake, pre-lighted Christmas tree) and TADA! It worked.

The festivities began.

I began decorating the tree, using gold beads (long thin strands of them, instead of tacky tinsel), little, round, red ornaments, and I refused to put anything else on the tree.

[I HATE TACKY CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS. I'm a very simple person when it comes to decoration. Less is more...]



Then, we did the windows.
Anyone who's ever been to my house knows that there are TONS of windows. Big ones.
We decorated all of the windows in the living room.

That's a lot of windows.

So, we put garland on the biggest, most important window, and lights on the other ones, and covered the ledges with my mother's collection of Santa and Snowmen figurines.


There was much taping and climbing of chairs and even a scream of fear once or twice. No major mishaps though...Although, we did break ONE ornament, and now have an odd number, and an empty spot whenever we decide to put them away. How obnoxious.

After finishing putting up decorations, we said family prayers and some of us headed for bed.
Others stayed up and watched "The Office."

A few good laughs before bed never hurt anyone!
That's when the hot chocolate was made, and consumed, in about ten minutes max.
Mmmmmmm.

Overall, the night went really well.
Mostly it was just a way to pass time, but it ended up bringing the family (that was here) and a friend together in the best of ways, helping each other, singing Christmas songs, laughing...

It was wonderful.




I hope all of you have a chance to develop and experience your own kind of Christmas cheer this year. It is a wonderful feeling, spending time with your family, getting things done, and having a beautiful house afterward.

If there's anything Christmas does, it's that it brings people together.
And we all need a little nudge sometimes.


Happy Holidays, everyone. And may God bless you in this Christmas season.

May your dreams be merry, and bright...
And may all your Christmases be white.


~E