Writing N Decorating

I was afraid this was going to be addictive .. I've been thinking about blogging again ever since I hit 'publish' on my first posting!

Spent my day off yesterday putting up the tree. And realizing when I started that this would be Padme's first Christmas as she came to us in late January. No worries there ... she wanted to sleep in the ornament storage box as soon as I had the ornaments out of it. And other than lightly pawing one large Santa Jingle Bell ornament to watch it move, and then going to sleep behind the tree, that was the end of potential tree problems! Mocha hasn't bothered with the tree yet either. Her favorite ornament is down where she can easily reach it but she's not taken it down and played with it yet. Don't know what it is with that ONE ornament .. the past two years, she's had it off the tree and across the floor every morning during the holiday season! It's a stitched ornie from Val's Stitchin Stuffs called "Ho Ho Ho".

My tree? Nope, not a 'real' one. I wish it were, but just can't afford one this year. We'd started out in this house with a 10' or 11' tall artificial, but incredibly real looking, tree. Since we're in a geodesic dome home, we have a two-story ceiling in the center ... living room, tv room. If you put a regular 5' or 6' tree in that area, it would look like a doll's house tree. So .. we'd do the big thing! I love Christmas .. I love the hustle and bustle of the holiday .. I love decorating a tree! But - Not that tree! Because it was so tall, it would also be very very wide at the bottom. You'd put it together in stages. First, the big step ladder would come out and you'd stand at the very top and put the top 3' of ornaments and tree topper on. Then you'd put the middle section on, move down a bit on the step ladder and start adding those ornaments to that 4' section. Then finally, the bottom 4' would be put together, finish decorating and ta da, you're finished!

Why did I hate it? I'm one of those 'Hallmark Commercial People' .. the ones that take each ornament out of the box, one at a time, look at it fondly and remember past holidays or when you got it or who gave it to you or whatever. And then, walk around the tree ,holding that one ornament, looking for just the PERFECT spot in which to hang it! Then back to the box, take out another ornament, and repeat. Repeat, repeat, repeat until all of the ornaments are on the tree .. in just the right places!

With the 'decorate the tree in stages' process, you couldn't get back up to the 'top part of the tree' after the bottom of the tree was in place as you just can't reach out that far! Too wide at the bottom, remember? That meant I had to decorate as I went .. and had to actually expect to 'like' the tree when it was decorated in such a hap-hazard manner. And then, since it was in the 'great room' against a wall, that meant that it was behind where I would be sitting to watch tv/stitch/read. Now that that tree was up, I couldn't see it and appreciate the lights/ornaments unless "I" was up! Mind you, Dave could care less about this whole thing!

We'd get a 'real tree' from time to time and put it over by the entertainment center, but it was then 'too close' to the woodstove, and since we heat by burning wood, the tree would dry out within a week! So, off I went to a cute country store and found a 6 1/2' Alpine fake tree .. the kind that is about a whole 2' wide at the base .. very tall, very skinny, very quick to decorate too. That could be a plus, but it's too small for my favorite ornaments - the big round glass ones, my grandmother's antiques, Dave's grandma's antiques, you get the idea - deep sigh. But this funky little alpine doesn't dry out while it sits about 5' away from the woodburner and I can see it/enjoy it from either of the two places I sit while watching tv/reading/stitching. And it does decorate up in a 1/2 hour max!

Now I just have to get out my holiday pictures to hang and my nativity set to display up high where the cats cannot get to, hang up Dave and my stockings, and I'm ready for the 'big guy' to arrive! Ooops .. no I'm not. Got wrapping and a teensy bit more shopping to do yet!!!

Went to Weight Watchers this morning and found to my delighted surprise, that even though this was the first weigh in since Thanksgiving, I'd actually lost 1#6 ounces. And then came home to find that Dave was making Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Walnut Cranberry Cookies! Nooooooooooooooooooo!!