Tag: Wizards of Winter

40 Days of Joy

Holiday Post: The Effects of Elvis’ Resurrection

Michele Kearns

It twas’ the night before Thanksgiving when all through the house Michele was spinning like the Tazmanian Devil.

How It All Began

It started when I went to the basement looking for more artificial snow. There were several trash bags filled with various decorations.

The first bag was Halloween decorations.

The second bag was stuffed animals. I pulled out one of the animals and it was a Christmas duck Joe bought when we were first married. He thought it was cute and he knew I was a sucker for stuffed animals.

You would think I would name the duck Donald but upon looking at him I said “That’s Elvis because of his curled lip.”

"Can you curl your lip like this?"
“Can you curl your lip like this?”

Pressing either Elvis’ hand or his hat resulted in him quacking We Wish You A Merry Christmas followed by Jingle Bells and ending with Santa Claus Is Coming To Town. Both Joe and I enjoyed Elvis’ concerts until he started serenading us in the middle of the night.

Elvis has a short in him that causes him to start singing whenever he feels like it. At first we thought he would settle down but Elvis kept up the middle of the night concerts. Joe then started taking out one battery before bed and we would sleep peacefully through the night.

Gone And Forgotten

When we moved from our apartment to our house, Elvis got packed away and forgotten about until last Wednesday. I was tickled pink to find him and located 2 double A batteries. Elvis started singing again once I pressed his left hand.

Taz

All of a sudden it was as if I was injected with the spirit of the Tazmanian Devil. I tore through this house decorating for Christmas. During the next 5 hours I ran up and down the steps about 20 times bringing various decorations up from the basement. Then I climbed up and down the step stool about 20 times making sure everything was just right as I decorated the top of the corner cupboard.

Ideas for what I could do kept flashing in and out of my head faster than the speed of these twinkling lights. 

Philosophy

It has been 10 years since I decorated this much. Even before Joe’s passing our philosophy was “Why bother decorating? No one is going to come see us.” So the events of last Wednesday took me completely by surprise.

More Than Normal

My house is not completely decorated but there are more Christmas decorations out than normal and all because of Elvis the Christmas duck. He is sitting in the living room chair which is decorated with a throw with angels, stars, harps and reindeer my sister sent Joe and me about 18 years ago.

Elvis sleeps during the night now but he randomly quacks during the day.

Thank You, Thank You Very Much

Thank you God, Jesus, Holy Spirit and Elvis for injecting me with the energy of Taz and bringing some of the spirit of Christmas back into this house.

"Thank You for reading this blog post - You've been a fantastic audience."
“Thank You for reading this blog post – You’ve been a fantastic audience.”

Stay tuned as there will be more posts about what I did to decorate this year as well as thoughts on thriving through the holidays and more updates about the Faithful Finish Lines program.

P.S. – Your eyes are not deceiving you, it is snowing on JoyReturns.  Wordpress activates the snow machine every year for about one month.  I LOVE this type of snow.  Enjoy!