In The Spirit

Yesterday I woke up with the Christmas spirit.  Or maybe that was just the sound of all the 18-wheelers stampeding down I-24.  We are so close to the interstate you can see the faces of the drivers.  Well, you could if you were able to focus fast enough.  Along with the increased traffic flow as dawn approaches, we also have the construction workers pulling out from their surrounding campsites--all with diesel trucks, of course.  The last to leave in this morning parade are the two young men from Colorado who are enrolled at Nashville Auto Diesel College.  I, for one, will be glad when they get to the chapter on mufflers.  Ahhh, morning in the campground.

Noisy as it was, it did not deter my spirit.  After breakfast and our usual morning chores, Gene and I ventured out into the holiday shopping crowd to the nearby community of Madison (really a suburb of Nashville).  Our first stop was Hobby Lobby where we selected garland for our traditional RV decorations.  Then it was on to Books-A-Million for a few books for Kayley and a final stop at Staples where Gene got a pocket calendar for 2010.  One strip mall, three stops, and our shopping is done.

We spent the afternoon putting up the decorations.  As has been mentioned by most of the RVers whose blogs I read--there ain’t much space for decorations.  The first year we had the Montana, there was an unoccupied space at the end of our kitchen counter which was ideal for a small tree.  We got one about 3 feet tall.  Gene and I were still working at the time and each day we went off to do our duty and left the Peanut home alone.  We were so proud of that cat for about a week.  He never bothered the tree.  I guess he got especially bored one day.  We came home to find the tree turned over, all the ornaments scattered about the living area, and Peanut intertwined among the branches of the tree.  We threw the tree and the ornaments away.  Peanut barely escaped being thrown away himself.

After a few days, we came up with the idea of garland.  Garland is really a Christmas tree in the shape of a straight line instead of a pear.  I wound the string of lights on the garland and placed it above the slides.  Then we hung the garland with ornaments and, behold, a tree the cat could not reach.  Last year after Christmas, I threw that original garland away.  This year, we got garland which already has the lights and the slide frames in the Everest are deeper than on the Montana.  I didn’t even have to secure the garland in place with velcro.  With a few other decorations adorning counters and tabletops, we are just waiting for Santa to come knocking at our door.

Perhaps I should make cookies; that’s always a nice touch.