I bet you feel it too… the holidays can be a stressful time. Ask yourself, what brings you Joy, makes you Merry, and warms your heart? For me, it’s getting together with friends and family, decadent food and the decorations. (Except for glitter – its gets all over everything!) I literally decorate every room in my house for Christmas.
Umbrella’s First Year
My first year at Umbrella, I asked the guys – where are the decorations? They looked at me sideways. Decorations? What decorations? They finally directed me to the basement to see what I could find.
There was a small tree, a string of lights, a wreath, and a five-foot tall Santa. I brought it all upstairs and found a hook to hang the wreath. The tree was shorter than Santa and both had to be placed on tables to be seen from the street in front of our offices in the River Market.
There were no ornaments. I’m slightly crafty and started what has become an Umbrella tradition. I bought small felt “stockings” and personalized them by writing our initials in gold glitter glue. This was something we did as kids, except we wrote in glue, dumped glitter on it and shook it off. Hey, maybe that’s why I don’t like glitter!
Anyway, each person then hangs their ornament on the tree, completing the tree decorating as a team. There were only nine of us, so it wasn’t a huge task that first year.
Three years ago, it was time to step up our game as far as decorations went. I found a nine-foot tree at an estate sale. Trent provided strings of lights and I still make the ornaments.
Three Times as many Stockings!
We keep growing, and there are three times as many stockings as we had that first year. It’s a good thing we have a larger tree! Our original small tree has been moved to our second floor. Oh, and much to my dismay, the Santa we have lost a paintball fight, leaving him confined to the basement. He looks kinda scary now.
The guys really look forward to setting up our giant tree and decorating it with their personalized ornaments. It definitely gets me into the spirit of the season!
From all of us at Umbrella, Happy Holidays!
P.S. Umbrella is closed for Christmas on December 26th, 2016 and New Year’s Day on January 2nd, 2017. We hope you’re not working, but if you are, and need to reach us, Emergency Support is available!
