Christmas Kharma.

In December of my freshman year at college, one of my lovely roommates, Sarah, and I went to Party City to find some decorations to adorn our way-too-small dorm room.  I was raised in a house of “Classic Christmas,” as my dad calls it, and we put white lights on the tree and a spotlight in front of the house casting light on the wreath on the door.  Sarah grew up on colored lights and sparkly things.  NOT a good combination for shopping for decorations together.  When Sarah held up, I think it was a sign for above the door, I tried to tenderly tell her, “No offense, but I don’t like tacky things.”  Okay, there’s no good way to say that, and this surely was not the way. Needless to say, this has been an ongoing joke between the two of us.

Sarah, if only you were here in Gisenyi when we were decorating…

I went into the refectoire after doing some chores to find a 10 to 12 foot tree in the corner. Last I knew, we were to be putting up a small fake tree. Apparently that wasn’t good enough, because Sr. Ema asked that a tree from the property be cut down and brought in. Go big or go home. So (Petite) Sr. Gisele asked if I wouldn’t mind helping her decorate. Sure thing, not a problem. We turn on the Josh Groban holiday cd I brought and open the box of decorations: a Christmas explosion. Red garland, blue garland, gold garland, silver garland. Silver, gold, and multicolored ornaments. Gold bows. And just as I thought I was going to have a panic attack, out come the colored lights.

We start putting some ornaments tastefully on the tree and after we put the star on top I’m beginning to really enjoy the simplicity of the big ol’ tree and its classic, natural look. As Petite Gisele reaches into the box to grab a long strand of garland, I can feel my blood pressure going up. Twisting, turning around the tree in no particular order, she then asks, “How does that look?”

I wasn’t quite sure what to say, so I just smiled and nodded (an emergency escape route).

Up goes the blue one, again haphazardly. Not only does this go against all of my Christmas decorating morals, this is starting to take on the spirit of my Toll Gate High School – red and blue. Gold garland. “Laura, grab that silver one, that’s going on next.” Oh no. (For some reason gold and silver together has always bothered me, I’m not quite sure why.) But up it goes.

Sr. Gisele is wonderful – she never seems to run out of energy and is very playful and has a strong personality and is also wise. She’s fresh out of novitiate – nun school, basically – and is full of life. We two get along great, but there are moments when I just have to smile and nod. I’ll let her have this tree thing, I thought. Up goes more and more garland until we run completely out.

Then the lights. Reading the box, I find that these lights are not just colored, but they blink. Lord, give me strength. As all wise tree decorators know, it’s best to test the lights before they go on the tree to make sure you haven’t unwound them in vain – sure enough, they work. We adorn the tree with as many lights as we’re able – we’re saving one strand of colored, blinking lights for the chapel, of course – and step back to admire our work. We plug in the lights and, AH! It’s nothing like what I could ever imagine putting together myself, but the pure chaos and calamity of the tree just made me smile. In fact, a laugh came out. As I explained to my parents, “it looks like Christmas sneezed all over the tree.” (Truly – you’ll agree when you see the picture.) We set up a nativity scene of beautiful wooden pieces beneath the tree and decided to call it a day.
 
This creation that Petite Gisele and I made together brings me so much joy and I only wish we could keep it up until May! I can’t promise colored lights on the tree next year (sorry, Mom), but I will always think of this tree when I see colored lights – a true expression of joy.