Cheery and Bright, Ad Nauseum

As soon as the turkey is consumed and the bargain shoppers have stampeded the stores, we make our way to the back of our attic where box after box after box is paraded out and down our steep, narrow stairwell to the living room where our freshly cut evergreen stands waiting. We don't have any halls to deck, but we do our best to deck everything else with garlands and candles, Santas and glittery things. The small, porcelain village stretched across the wall at the front of the room is a festive prototype for what we're hoping to accomplish using the contents from all of those boxes. Cheery and bright. One of our favorite modes of Christmas decorating is strings of lights. White ones and brightly colored ones, both. We hang them on windows and door frames, of course on the Christmas tree, and on bushes outside.

Our house is looking downright cheery and bright both inside and out, but I decide we needed a few more strings of lights and pick up four new boxes when I am shopping one day. I throw white lights over the two bushes in front of our house and run colored lights to our flower boxes in the front windows. The result is satisfying and I take note of the spectacle every time I pull in our driveway after dark. Our house seems to be providing the season's cheer for the entire country block. 

On one such night, I am returning home with my two older boys. We have been out sledding. I slow in front of our house to get a good long glimpse of our darling house and I make some sort of remark about its cheerfulness and the next thing I know, Nolan is making his own remarks. 

"Vomit," he squeaks, quietly, almost imperceptibly from the back of the car. 

"What?!" Nonplussed,  I fumble for even that one word.

"It looks like vomit."  He states as a matter of fact.

"What?!"  I can't believe my ears. 

"It looks like the windows are vomiting."

With new eyes I examine the front of our festive home and realize he is right. It does, in fact, look like our windows are upheaving a big helping of Fruity Pebbles.