Caregiving: pimping out the Christmas Tree

Tuesday, I celebrated my 29th birthday for the 28th time. I needed something to get over the doldrums so I decided to “pimp out” my Christmas Tree. … If I was genuinely ‘old’ then I would use archaic words like decorate or trim.

 

The urban dictionary defines “pimped out” as having excessive embellishments or ornaments, particularly of the flashy kind, i.e. feathers in fedoras, black canes with silver handles, multicolored mis-matched shoes, and colorful crushed velvet suits. Preferably worn simultaneously. … Now THAT’S what I’m talking about. <grin>

    

Pimping out the family Christmas Tree has certainly evolved like everything over the decades of living with Multiple Sclerosis as a family.

 

In the early years when Patti could still struggle to stand I needed to create tree stability. Too often she would grab the tree for support or fall into it and you can guess what happened. Screwing the Christmas Tree stand into a 3 ft square, three fourths inch thick piece of plywood created a stable enough Christmas Tree to swing on. <grin>

Now in the wheelchair era and with visual impairment so pronounced, ornaments are concentrated at wheelchair level for viewing and touching enjoyment.

 

Of course, Patti is no longer of any help and 19 yr olds seem to feel trees should pimp themselves. Sooooo … it fell on the eternal 29th birthday boy and Stardust to take care of our 2007 Christmas Tree.

         

Yes, for those connoisseurs of cartoons, that is “Patrick”, the starfish, crowning the top of our tree. <grin>

 

P.S. I even used my trusty Ginsu knife to trim the tree from 9' to 8.5' and yes could still perfectly slice food afterwards!

 

Caregivingly Yours, Patrick Leer

http://caregivinglyyours.com/

Tags: caregiving, Multiple Sclerosis, Christmas Tree, pimp out, Patrick, Ginsu, 29th Birthday