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Friday, December 24, 2010

Tropical X'mas Tree


When the children were little, we had a tiny little X'mas tree which The Husband called the mosquito tree because it was so spindly and rather bald, that it looked like a big mosquito. Then came the year when The Husband categorically refused to put up The Mosquito. He was fed up that I had ignored his wish for a big X'mas tree over so many years. So we went and bought a somewhat bigger X'mas tree. Somewhat.

I don't understand The Husband's fascination for big things. Big dogs. Big frangipani trees. Big X'mas trees. I wonder if he would have preferred to marry a big wife too.

This year, the topic of the X'mas tree was one that stimulated lively debate. Little Boy wanted a real one with pine needles. The last time I had that in my living room, I was living in France, and I did not have a nice time sweeping up the pine needles. Added to that, it really bothers me to be celebrating X'mas with a living being sitting in my living room that is slowly dying... "Because that is what real pine X'mas trees do." I said, "They die a slow and possibly agonising death in your living room whilst you eat drink and are merry."

I won that round. No live pine tree.

Then the whole family considered the fake tree sitting in its box. And The Husband predictably said that it was too small. Good grief... how big must his tree be?! I truly understood how big when The Husband smiled beatifically at the tree in Universal Studios. No way! He wanted real and he wanted big. And so he proposed to buy me a real tree to grow in the garden at the new house, which we can carry into the house at X'mas time.

The Husband won that round. I don't mind growing his conifer for him. Though I rather think that if it can be carried hither and thither, it can't be that big.

But well... we aren't at the new house yet so The Husband graciously conceded that we should find a temporary solution. Since everyone seemed to want a real tree, I proposed to decorate our new frangipani rooted cutting. So voilà... this year, we have a Tropical X'mas Tree.

So... The Daughter enlisted the help of The Male Friend who balanced the pot in the palm of his hand, waltzed down the stairs and deposited gently it downstairs by the window. And Little Boy decorated it with me. This custom is very important to Little Boy.

One year, I was too lazy to put up The Mosquito. Little Boy asked when X'mas was on 26th December 200X. And when he heard that X'mas was over he wailed long and loud "X'mas is over and it didn't even come!" To placate him, we drove all the way down to Bras Basah to get X'mas decorations and spray cans to make frosted glass. Everything was going for a 50% discount and Stingy Petunia seriously considered making it a habit to do post-hoc X'mas decorations every year.

A VERY MERRY X'MAS to ALL!!

5 comments:

Fresh Fry aka 福星 said...

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! i'd wail like Little Boy too! merry x'mas + happy new year, ya all! =D

My Sinfonia said...

Obviously the tree has magical powers in the minds of little and big men! Happy Christmas to you Petunia, Ah Boy, the Daughter and the Husband!

Wen-ai said...

Haha, Merry Xmas! Looking forward to see the "live and living" Xmas tree next year!

Blur Ting said...

LOL, a big wife! I doubt that. My son was complaining about the lack of Christmas tree in our house too. Maybe I'll just decorate the conifer tree in my garden next year.

Malar said...

I use to decorate big dead branches of tree( which i collect) for Deepavali until i got married. For me Deepavali=decorated tree.... Me and your boy have same thinking!;-)
Anyway looks like you will have big X-mas tree next year!