Jumping Jacks!

I have been trying to get my Christmas decorations all up but it just seems that one thing or another tries to sabotage the process. I am far behind schedule if you can say something of this sort should be on a schedule. Usually, everything is in place plus all of the shopping is finished by Thanksgiving. Not this year, I am just starting. I blame it on my son! It is absolutely his fault that I am this far behind. If you recall, in July he would not let me put up my Fall decorations.. "July is not Fall, Mom!" Then in August.. no decorations. "Wait at least until September, Mom!" It was slowly killing me! Now that it is the end of November, I should be excited to take down the Fall things and convert the house to Christmasville! Instead, I was reluctant to take down the pumpkins and leaf garlands. The scarecrows were the worse..they looked at me so forlornly..begging not to be put in the closet! The delay in Fall at my house has now pushed Christmas into January so it seems! His insistence that I wait has thrown off my circadian rhythm..right! Anyway, as I said I was trying to decorate the house. The shelves are full of pine cones and red berries but that was as far as I have gotten until today. Today the tree was finally proudly standing in the living room in front of my red windows. It took almost all day to put on the lights and red bead garland, but finally I was ready to start with the ornaments. First, I tied jute string to some pine cones and dangled them from the limbs to give the tree a nice "earthy" look. I opened the first box of ornaments..then it happened. It was like a trip down memory lane. Each ornament brought back a flood of memories. There were ornaments that my kids made throughout the years, there were ornaments from my mother's tree and there were ornaments the were given to me by one dear friend or another. How could I just stick them on the tree without at least daydreaming a bit? Five hours later and I still only have about half of the tree decorated! I did, however, have an enjoyable time reminiscing about the past and if you can not feel a bit nostalgic at Christmastime, it just would not seem right.

There are about a dozen ornaments that came from my parents' house that I truly love. They are the cutest little Jumping Jacks. Little wooden figures that are stringed together so that if the main string is pulled, their arms and legs move. They literally look like they are doing the exercise by the same name..a thought..which came first? The ornament or the exercise?? Hmmm?? These are an assortment of people and even one reindeer. There are snowmen, soldiers, jesters and Highland lads..each painted with adorable faces. I remember when Mom bought these..they were less than a dollar each at the time. She loved them and they never failed to bring a myriad of smiles to the children that would come to her house. Today, I thought I might add to this collection if I could find some to order. To my surprise the price of Jumping Jacks has done the jumping! These same identical ones that are hanging on my tree are now a whopping $24 a piece! Wow! This amazes me and I am sure would astound my mother as well. Her under a dollar Jumping Jack has sure had a huge increase in cost. I think perhaps I had better take better care of these little fellows in the future!