Your Life Sparkles

December is here. I am getting out my Christmas decorations and I always get excited about that... but I miss my tall-helper. My Ben.

And his meticulousness with things. Lights, perfect...with proper clamps and staples. It may surprise you to hear that I am satisfied with duct-taped sparkly lights ...my goal is quantity and wanting decor everywhere... and don't worry I will cover that duct tape with garland... I just wanted glitter, sparkle, lights... everywhere.. and oh, yes... right now.

Not Ben, haha. He was always so patient. Laying things out, set up taking half the time, declining my tornado of help. Every year he'd say, 'Just let me do this myself.' And every year, I was shocked and dismayed that an ACE helper like me was benched. I learned to let him be and get onto other decorating, though so it worked well. He tackled outside and big things.

Even though I would describe our style as minimalists, for me, this is not true at Christmas. I add to my decor and delight every year, budgeting to add, add, add.

Every truly, every year, he would be wide-eyed, genuinely surprised that I bought .. even more Christmas things... He'd quietly shake his head and say, 'Well, I don't know if we even have room for that.' (but cleverly, not anything truly foolish.. like 'stop buying stuff' or 'put that back'.)

I bought more things today and he's not here to wide-eyed (but quietly) inspect my parcels. Another first... missing Ben with decorating.