Making Merry

Today J's pager went off unexpectantly and early.  I mean, cock-a-doodle-dog wasn't even up kind of early.  He was on jeapordy call and wouldn't you know, someone got ill and he had to go in.  I felt completely ripped off of a day with my husband. 

We had plans, damnit.  We were actually going to try and decorate the house for Christmas.  Our tree still hasn't arrived, but we could do things like put up garlands, go find a wreath, actually have a fire in the fireplace since I hired the chimney sweep last week to give us a green light.  But nooooo.  Some stupid colleague actually broke the super-human myth that doctors are supposed to live up to and got sick enough they sent him home.  (I keep telling J that this does in fact happen when he's hacking up a lung or swearing he'll steal some pedialite to keep himself hydrated from the children's hospital, but he doesn't listen and still believes he is superman with a pager and a stethoscope.)  At any rate, I got left to make merry all by myself.

J and I have done some Christmas stuff.  We made mulled wine last night.  We made cookies this week.  (Mind you, we have an odd assortment of cookie cutters so I made the usual snowmen and angels, but I threw in some Christmas rhinoceros and frosted them purple, much to J's horror of my unconventionality.)  We also made a warm veggie stew on a cold winter's night (which actually was quite bland.)  And yesterday we did brave the malls to go find a winter forest candle from Williams Sonoma for the house.  Some Christmas stuff, but not a ton.

I decided I really needed some human interaction.  Staying at home cleaning with the dog wasn't going to make my spirits bright and I could just see J's disappointed face if he were to come home post-call tomorrow morning and saw that I decided I needed a little bit of Christmas solo.  I ended up calling my co-hostess from the turkey party.  She's the only one I know that is only semi-non-medical or work related here.  I suggested brunch.  I quickly confined houndini and thought nothing of my messy house as I headed out the door. 

It was a nice brunch.  I felt girlie gossiping and whatnot over lattes.  Just as I was ready to head home, she said, "Ok, so I should totally go run errands, but instead I'm going to invite myself over to your house."

I thought she was joking.  Nope.  I quickly did a mental scan of the dirty laundry on the floor, dishes half unloaded from the dishwasher, Edgar's toys everywhere, and J's papers all over the back room.  She came over and began commenting on our decor. 

"Its very neutral, but we could totally work with this."  She exclaimed opening the doors into the master bedroom with the bed unmade.  "I love the desk, but its not in a good place for it to be shown off.  I really see that storage is an issue for you guys.  Perhaps an armoir?  What do you think about a warm beige paint to warm up the walls?" 

I found myself a bit overwhelmed, making excuses why things weren't Martha Stewartesque.  "We?" I thought.

"Its my inner designer." She proclaimed.  "I watch a lot of cable and get my ideas from there." 

With the ideas she was throwing around I thought J wouldn't even notice a few garlands over the fireplace.