I’ll be out for a couple of days, because in my 5th year of volunteering at the school Santa Shop (properly known as Gifts Galore, misunderstood by 3 year old Sara to be named The Gifts War, as it will forever be called at our house), I have found this event heralds in the holiday season for me.  I look forward to it all year.  This year’s capable Chairman (GO TAMMI!), has allowed me to stretch my decorating wings.  Whatever we had in storage, I was told to “have at it”. The big red sign that replaces the “Meeting Center” sign?  I can put that up?  Yep.

The myriad of ceiling signs, and the twinkling lights that surround the entire shop, and the spinning fairy at the gift tag table, and I can turn all the poles into candy canes?!  Yep.  2 hours folks.  I had that Meeting Center decked out in 8 year-old style decor in 2 hours flat.  Me, the big ladder, and those lights?  I was in Gifts War heaven. You know the warm feeling you get when you unpack your Christmas ornaments?  It’s like saying hello to old friends.  I get that same feeling, but instead of ornaments, I’m unwrapping larger-than-life hand-me-down signs rescued from a Barnes & Noble dumpster at midnight.  What can I say?  Christmas joy comes in many, many forms.

The windows-of-uneven size are an annual challenge for me.  I reverted to my Gifts War Mentor’s go-to and tried to turn the windows into snow globes.  After 4 years of scraping off spray snow, I decided on paper snowflakes.  Do you know how many snowflakes it takes to fill in 4 windows not quite 45″x47″? Them’s a lot of snowflakes guys.  Our school’s paper rolls don’t evenly fit the windows either, and while working on these at the last minute (what? me? procrastination? NEVER…), I realized I’m the world’s worst free hand sketcher.  Wait…I knew that in advance.  So, with 45 minutes to go-time, 4 huge sheets of blue paper, and in need of something large and round to trace, my eyes started dashing around my house.  Big…round…think LORI…THINK:

Did I get up on a rickety-stool and disassemble our living room ceiling light?  I may have.  And I think we can all agree it was the perfect assimilation of a gigantic, not quite 45″ snow globe. What’s important is that I A) Did not kill myself on that stool while cursing that I couldn’t find the ladder (of all the things I misplace around here, I am most famous for losing very large ladders…??? don’t ask me how I do it), and B) Got the entire chandelier reassembled before Greg got home.  One more eye-roll from him in 2012, and I fear he might go blind.

So, I’m off.  I must unpack my “Got Gifts?” red apron, warm up the spiced cider for the volunteers, and pack up a tray of bark cookies.  This time of year means war…a GIFTS WAR...and I’m about to watch 400 kids oh-so-carefully pick out presents for the people they love most.  It’s heart-warming in a way I cannot describe.  I wish you all flavors of joy this holiday season.