So apparently there is this weird thing that happens to human beings. And my dad is always telling me I shouldn’t do it at all. And as much as I’d like to take his advice I’m not sure how to manage it…It seems the consensus on “getting old” is that it’s inevitable and does in fact happen to us all. Oh well. I have seen some distinct advantages to not being 17 anymore so maybe “getting old” is all about moderation and one should stop before one carries it too far. I’ll have to ponder on the stopping point and at what age I’ll decide I’ve had enough of aging.
My grandparents have mastered the art of getting old. They are doing pretty well for being almost 86 and 84 respectively. Unfortunately, this year doing pretty well meant they still needed some help to get their house in the spirit of the season and we were only to happy to provide the manual labor.

Grandma consulted the Great Book of Holidays to know what was where in the vast recesses of the garage. She was the general leading the decor front while Grandpa oversaw all train operations. They’re a good team, those two. Also someday I have hope that Garyn will take as much pleasure from a normal, nice smile in pictures as he currently does from goofy faces. Sigh…it will be nice wedding reception fodder.

It is a little known fact about Naomi that she loves to organize and arrange. She doesn’t necessarily maintain her arrangements (as evidenced by her desk) but she does love the initial event of organizing. I’m thinking she could be a professional organizer in between writing gigs. She and Corra got right to work placing the various nativities and other collections

It was also decided early on that Layna would be the librarian of the day. Every Sunday when we go to family dinner at Grandma’s house, Layna makes a bee line for the books, grabs a stack and nestles into the overstuffed leather couch. It’s part of her Sunday ritual and the switch to Christmas books has only made it that much more exciting. She did help with other decorating as soon as I promised she could climb the ladder.

Grandpa got a model train to go around the base of their tree a bajillion years ago. Certainly as long as this boy has even been aware of Christmas. So he’s been in love with this train going on 14 Christmases now and was honored and excited to head up the train effort, overseen and guided by the General, of course. The tree went up first and it was quite a dance to have Garyn building the village and train tracks down low while Naomi, Corra, and I decorated the tree up above. I kind of love that Grandma has had the same light pink/light green color scheme in all of her houses and on all of her trees for as long as I’ve been around…all the way back to the first Christmases I can remember in California. We managed and didn’t break a single anything!

Big ones rested after we finished with their own reading stacks and Grandma paid her work force in pizza. Perfectly equitable deal for all involved.

I know this picture is up at the top. I wanted to show you again. My great grandpa Covey (Grandma Barbara’s dad) made this sign. I’m partially named after him (His name is William Lindsey Covey) and I’m so excited to meet him at his prime. He was a fascinating man. That makes this sign around 70ish years old. He loved to build things and that this sign has lasted is proof of his skill. You can swap out the word boards for ones that say “Happy New Year” and it has blinking white lights inside that light up the letters. This sign has been a part of every single one of my 35 Christmases. In this past year of crazy and a future filled with too many unknown’s for this planner’s brain…it reminds me that some things get better with age and getting old isn’t so bad at all.