Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Decorations

My mom noticed that I didn't have any decorations around my apartment this year.
Usually, I do just a little something.
Mom's really into crafting, and so our family typically has a lot of handmade decorations all over everywhere at Christmastime.  She always puts up a tree that is completely covered in angels and other handmade ornaments.  I made some of them as a child; there are a lot of ornaments where we have two on the tree.  One is the one that mom made, and the other is the one that I did.  Until I turned about 12, mine are definitely a little sloppier than mom's, but she loves them anyway.  
Mom loves Christmas decorations so much that she started collecting angels.  At first, it was a Christmastime-only collection, but now she keeps some of them up all year.  She also has a crèche on display year-round. 
 So, obviously, she was going to notice that my place doesn't look very festive.  In typical mom fashion, she brought me some decorations that she had stored for me, and put them up.  I now have a string of quilted mittens at my fireplace, and a stocking hung by the chimney (with care).

Mom means the best with all of this.  She's trying to do things that she thinks will make me happy, and remind me of the beautiful things at a time of year where it can be pretty cold and bleak.  And she doesn't know that I'm pretty sure that I'm going to go through with the conversion; she still believes that I'm simply learning about Judaism.

It just goes to show that it's not going to be the easiest path.  I'll probably never be able to be completely traditional in my observances.  Instead, I'll have to find a balance between Judaic traditions and family traditions.  I'm sure it can be done, but it's going to take a lot of patience and understanding.

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