kenny's dead!

for the first time in my life, i had a real (as opposed to aluminum) christmas tree!  joe and i picked him out, brought him home, decorated him and named him kenny.  we accessorized him in blue and gold and we stacked lots of presents (mostly for other people) underneath his branches. 

i'd never really understood the point of christmas decorations before — the sight of them was a nuisance, and the act of putting them up (and later taking them down) was just tedious.  christmases with my own family were fairly unmemorable — with one exception.  when i was six years old, i wrote a letter to santa asking for a spider-man doll (an acceptably masculine alternative to barbie).  on christmas morning, i ran downstairs to find a letter from santa in my stocking.  in his note, he acknowledged my good behavior during the year and then went on to apologize for his lack of spider-man dolls.  he hoped that i would instead enjoy the panasonic pencil sharpener he'd left for me on the mantelpiece.

i was understandably traumatized.

hooray for kenny the christmas tree, though — he may have rescued this holiday for me by making it enjoyable instead of a dreary month to get through.  he may be gone now, off to christmas-tree heaven, but the memory of him makes me smile.

rest in peace, my little tree!

Posted by jason at January 7, 2004 01:07 PM