Time to Visit American Plant

As a child I would get the Christmas tree with my dad around this time of year. As I got older and lived away from home I always liked to get the Christmas decorations up the day after Thanksgiving. In the Midwest there were window boxes, vases in front of fireplaces, mantles, windowsills and so many other places to decorate. When I didn’t have enough garlands and greens I could easily cut branches off the trees and bushes in the backyard. When we moved to Capitol Hill we no longer had space for most of this stuff, but I would still decorate with live branches and fill the wall vase with greens. Now we live in northern Virginia and the space is still small. For whatever reason this year I didn’t feel like doing much of anything. But yesterday we finally went to American Plant to pick up some branches. I knew I would at least like to replace the bamboo branches in the dining room with something a bit more festive. We ended up getting two bunches - some taller so as to feign a tree of sorts. I haven’t had time to set things up yet this week so I have the branches sitting in water. I’ll need to dig out the one large box of Christmas decor and put up a few icicles and my favorite ornaments. The window baskets on the balcony will be ignored this year. It’s nice to have some reminders of the season. Each year feels a little different.