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Christmas With the Foresters
Celebrating the Christmas Season Forester Style
All I Want for Christmas . . .
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Clark W. Griswold, of National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, has nothing on our Foresters. That's because several of them wanted to do some
decorating for the holidays and they got me involved. All in all, it seemed like a worthy thing to do, so I told them, "If you get permission, I'll help." Little did I know what all of this would involve. |
Ho, Ho, Ho; Who Wouldn't Go?
It began Saturday night, right after the Foresters beat Taylor. They decided this was the
right time to start decorating. So Alex Kock, Seth Lochmueller, Jason Rahn, Steve Snider and I headed for "Wally World."
Beware! If anyone ever gives you the chance to go holiday shopping with four college basketball players, DON'T DO IT! I found a strange holiday
sweatshirt in my cart, was paged over the Wal-Mart PA system, I didn't know where they were half the time, and simply had trouble keeping four guys focused on the task at hand. Of course, in their defense,
they were just off that big win over Taylor.
What should have been a half hour trip took nearly two hours, but we finally converged at the check out lane with 2,000 lights, an air-blown inflatable
Santa, and The Grinch. Seth selected Noel the Christmas Candle and Ox. That's Ox of the manger scene. Not the whole manger scene, mind you, just Ox.
Do You See What I See?
Fortunately, I saw that they would need electricity for this stuff. One would think
electric cords might be a basic thought here, but not with these guys. They were in such a hurry to hang decorations that power was the least of their concerns. The fact that these things would be
outdoors also seemed lost on them because they went back and picked out the cheapest extension cords they could find -- rated for indoor use. Fear not! I insisted that they get outdoor cords suitable for
the intended purpose.
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Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas
We finally got back to the campus around 9:00 PM. Now, isn't that when you usually start
putting up your outdoor lights? Nothing like the reflection of the moon to help you put up your Christmas decorations. I was
assigned to help out Steve by putting the lights on the bushes and helping him set up The Grinch.
According to Steve, there is a right way and a wrong way to put the lights on the bushes. Naturally, I
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was doing it the wrong way. So, after being severely reprimandanded, I was reassigned to extension cord duty -- a task for which I was especially
qualified (at least that's what he told me). It seems that some have the gift of the Spirit; I have the gift of extension cords.
Up On the Rooftop
Meanwhile, Alex, Jason, and Seth were up on the roof putting lights along the top roof line and
the eaves. As if that wasn't scary enough, they were hanging the air-blown Santa from a second story overhang. Allow me to repeat that, because it seems vaguely important. That's an inflatable
Santa, complete with motor, hanging from the second story! It was a compromise; they had wanted Santa on top of the roof, but when that proved impractical, they just hung him.
(click on picture to enlarge)
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