Agreeing To Disagree

Each November I do a delicate dance with my mother-in-law. She doesn't know we're dancing, but we are. In this dance, I start decorating for Christmas sometime between mid-November and the first Sunday of Advent whilst fervently making sure she doesn't find out. Just to be clear: there is nobody I know who is more into Christmas decorating than she is, but Mama Swede is a purist and would never dream of putting out even one of her hundreds of Santas before Advent. She's never said as much to my face (though once she commented on my blog), but I'm quite sure she's pretty disappointed by my Christmas decorating habits. So I don't put anything in the window in case she should happen to drive by. I make strategical choices, like the amaryllis I put on the front porch, which can be categorized as more of a winter item than a Christmas one, should I ever be pressed to explain myself. And this... well, this isn't a Christmas doormat, it's just kurbits, that's all. I've being doing this dance for the past week, putting a lot of effort into my strategery, when The Swede went ahead and revealed on The Molsta Group that I was about to hang Christmas curtains. Mama Swede responded with a cringing emoticon. My mobile device throbbed with disappointment (disgust?) in my hand. I went to my choir rehearsal later that evening feeling shameful and resentful of The Swede's big mouth and then was TOTALLY REDEEMED when I arrived at the church and saw this glorious sight. If The Swedish Church gets to decorate for Christmas before Advent, then by gosh, so do I!