Mistletoe
We are gearing up for the holidays around here this week because we are scheduled to head out to NYC to see the kids for a few days. The last time we saw them was September when we were supposed to be heading to Spain and Portugal, but cancelled the motorcycle trip since some in our group were not so comfortable with the feinting surge in the Delta variant. So, we spent a week in Brooklyn instead just spending time with all the kids and some of our friends. Things are totally different now. Then we were surging while Spain and Portugal were getting over Delta, so you might say we were going against the flow. Now, we here in the U.S. are surging even before the new Omicron variant takes hold and the continent (at least Germany and France) are also surging, but who knows how much of that is Omicron or Delta, or for that matter, Alpha. It’s all getting too confusing to keep track of all the surges, variants, infection rates, vaccination cycles (and manufacturers), infection severity, and long COVID implications. I suppose its good that we are becoming more tuned into our our vulnerabilities, frailties and hygiene.
This evening, Kim was doing some of her last minute decorating so that the house would be ready when we return from NYC for the start of the pre-Christmas gatherings that will lead directly and quickly into the actual Christmas gatherings. I feel we do a respectable job of being sensible with out Christmas decorating. I have never understood the Chevy Chase Christmas Vacation version of house decorating. It’s less about the garish look of the house or cranking up the San Diego grid, but more about the physical work involved with putting up and then taking down all those lights. Why do people do that? I like to find convenient ways to maximize impact of our decorating while minimizing effort of installation. My little matching mini-trees at our entry are pre-wired and plug right into the front gate lights so that the timer is automatic and requires no wiring or remembering from one year to the next. Inside the house, we have opted for a lovely tin Mexican tree with colorful colored “jewels” set into it mimicking tree lights. It feels right here in Southern California and it sets up and takes down ever so easily.
Where I feel very good about convenience-based decorating, apparently Kim has some of the Chevy Chase in her and she just keeps putting out more and more decorations from a few large plastic bins that live on the garage shelving during the year. Now there is garland around the TV, holiday pillows on all the sofas and chairs, a red velvet reindeer head on the wall (and this from a woman who abhors hunting and taxidermic displays), little red things like trees and baskets here and there, and an invention all her own, a ladder leaning against the wall with ornaments hanging from it. Like all Hallmark Holiday Movie addicts, Kim has a collection of prized holiday ornaments, each with their own story and memory. Hanging seven ladder steps full of ornaments looks like lots and lots of trouble to me, but what do I know? My garden decorations are all low-effort, high-impact things that don’t need so much attention to detail.
As I was sitting here wondering what I would tell Kim I wanted for desert when she asked (I find its important to let her ask me and to not generate the request myself), she asked me the key question of the night. She was holding the artificial sprig of mistletoe that she likes to hang up for the holidays. She wondered whether it should go up in the archway between the living room and the kitchen or the archway between the living room and the Master Bedroom hallway (a.k.a. the laundry room). My evening was suddenly derailed. What sounded like an innocent question was so much more involved than that.
I can kiss Kim under the mistletoe or anywhere, any time, so its placement had no particular impact on me. I then went through the list of people who would be coming over here in the coming weeks and my mind started to spin. A few days after returning from New York we are having our neighbors from the immediate area over for a cocktail party. Our neighbors on either side are new to the hood. One is a set of Marine Biologists and her mother. She and Mom are of Asian descent (I suspect Indonesia, but am uncertain, but Mom doesn’t speak too much English, which is not necessary to walk the dogs, which seem to be her primary activity). On the other side are our new Nepalese neighbors and their parents, who spend their time gardening every day and also not speaking too much English). The other two couples, Winston and Kathleen and Julie and Jon, are pretty much all-American with English as their native language. The problem is that I have no idea whether mistletoe is a good thing in Indonesia or Nepal, or for that matter, for long-married older couples.
A few days after that I have gone way out on a limb and invited all of my siblings (they now number 8 identifiable, but I only have emails for 6) for a Sunday Christmas luncheon. I am not yet sure who will bring how many of their nuclear family members, but I think it will be well-attended. The funny thing is, some of these people I only know a little about (that was sort of the whole idea of a gathering now that we know we all exist). It’s sure to be an “interesting” gathering as people remark about how much so-and-so looks like my father or for that matter, what exactly did our father actually look like? All of this while we give rapid tests to the several family members who have chosen not to be vaccinated. I know that will raise a few eyebrows to be sure. What I don’t have a clue about is whether anyone will want to kiss anyone either under the mistletoe or anywhere else for that matter. It may be all convivial, but given the general history of family holiday gatherings around the world, there might also be lots of offending (accidental or intentional) going on. So, who knows.
And then there will be the Christmas week itself where Kim’s and my family will gather to tell each other about all the weird goings on around these holidays of COVID infestation and gatherings among new friends and family. Luckily for us, Gary and Oswaldo will arrive a few days early and stay a few days late. They are always most helpful with the physical preparations and the psychological bandaging after the fact. And as a long-married couple (at least as long as the law allowed them to wed), they are no strangers to mistletoe and won’t care where it is hanging. And that is the bottom line on mistletoe. It is some combination of Greek, Celtic and Norse mythology that has led us to think of mistletoe as an herb that is both a healing (God knows the world needs that now more than ever) and symbolically representative of love, especially of family. The healing balm of love seems like it should be hung anywhere and everywhere to good effect.