There was just a hint of slushy snow among the raindrops as we approached Long Beach last night – enough to make the sidewalks slippery and the wet to cling to hats and coats as we hurried from car to house.  It felt like December-for-sure outside and looked like Christmas inside.  And it was a special kind of Christmas – our friend Gordon’s kind!

For one thing, dozens of red balloons hugged the ceiling, their long white ribbon tails softly brushing our heads and shoulders. Who besides Gordon would think of creating Christmas ambiance with balloons!  In addition, of course, candles flickered, brightly wrapped packages were in evidence here and there, and the table and bar wee appropriately appointed.

But the main attraction of the evening – the focus, as it were (besides Gordon, himself, of course) — was the Christmas tree.  Make that attractions and foci and trees.  There were three of them, each more beautiful than the last.

The main tree, a slim stand-alone beauty, stood in elegant splendor in the corner.  The other two were up-against-the-wall types (how do they attach and stay there, anyway?), equally adorned and illuminated.  Gordon called one of them “the food tree,” pointing out that all of the ornaments were some sort of edible.  All three were over the top and made a stunning display nestled among their balloon forest surroundings.

Since this is our ‘every-other-no-tree-year,’ we especially enjoyed those trees.  We also tucked in the back of our minds that Gordon had hosted a little decorating party a few weeks back and had placed a friend in charge of each tree.  He orchestrated and directed, but cleverly delegated the manual work to others – one of whom later reported that it was “a hoot.”

What a good idea!  Leave it to Gordon to take a page from Santa and surround himself with Christmas elves.  I’m already wondering how I can pull off a similar feat next year.