Christmas tree

 

If you have no pine tree, substitute something else.

O Christmas Tree

 

Everyone posting pictures of their Christmas trees remind me of something my husband told me. 

One year on Christmas break from college, his parents asked him to take down the Christmas tree and put away the ornaments. He forgot. When he came back home for Easter break, there was the tree - all brown, most of the needles dropped off and in piles on the floor around it. It was terrible to clean up, but it was all his to do.

Have you put up your Seasonal Decorations yet?

Un decorating the house

Time to take the 'artificial' tree down.
It's undecorated.
All the decorations are put away.
But we can't get the tree apart so that we can put it back into its box.
I tried.
Teen tried.
I think it will take a strong man to do it.
Great!
I bought artificial so that I could do everything myself without straining my back. But NO. It's not gonna happen.
Welcome to The Tree that Stayed up all Year.
(For you non-children's librarians -- that's the name of a book.)

Actually, my little tree is only 4 feet tall, nothing like the tree shown here on the blog.

Looking toward December

Well, this is a first.
No blog posts in November?

I don't know what happened. Where did November go?
Meanwhile,
I have a question for you --

Thanksgiving is over. Have you put your tree Up, yet?

Merrie Christmas!

Just a few more days until Christmas and

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Tree is up. Decorations are all over the place. (storage boxes are all over the place -- gotta stack them back in the garage) 

And temperatures will be cold, for southern California -- in the 50s for the next 4 days. I'm going to have to bundle up when I do my beach walk.

Plus -- there are only 2 more days of school.

Our schedule looks pretty booked up over the next six days.
-- House closing should be today or tomorrow. Which means we'll have to begin shopping for a new washer, dryer, and refrigerator for the new house. 
Measure the house. 
Measure our furniture, 
work out what will go where in the new (smaller) house.
 Begin transferring items from this rental to the house. And more stuff.

-- The 14-year-old (yes, she is now officially a teenager, complete with boyfriend on the phone) has PLANS.  
Fun with friends, 
going to see the Nutcracker, 
a trip of several hours with friends to buy a lizard. (panic not. It's not for us; it's for the friend.), 
Christmas at her friend's house while I join my older daughter and her family at my son-in-law's Christmas dinner. 
Possible trips to the zoo, 
to Seaworld (they have a snow hill to sled on at the penguin house), 
to a lot of places. 
Overnights with friends. 
 Homework. (yes, that has to be done, too) 
Shopping for a high bed with desk underneath for her new room. 
ETC.

So, what are you doing this Holiday Season?

Oh, Christmas Tree

I didn't bring my artificial Christmas tree along when we moved. So, last year we had to buy a real tree. Years ago, I used to always buy, or cut our own, Douglas Fir because of the soft limbs and needles. (Since I'm the one delegated to put the lights on and to undress the tree -- soft needles are nicer to my hands.) However, I think I was allergic to Douglas Fir.

Last year we bought a Noble Fir.  Never heard of that kind of evergreen tree when I lived on the East Coast. The man said it was fairly new -- a cross between the Douglas and something sturdier. It was a beautiful tree, lasted the full 12 Days of Christmas (we always take down the tree on New Year's Day), and the needles are soft. More important, I didn't seem to be allergic to it.

So ---- It's time to put up the tree.  It's close enough to Christmastime to buy the tree. And yes, I'm going to get another Noble Fir.

Just for fun, someday I just might put up another artificial tree -- like this one:

Christmas tree is up!

With the help of the 12-year old and her friends, our Christmas tree is up, a week before Christmas. In the traditional place -- in front of the window.  It's always the main and usually the only house decoration people can see from the road.  It's too difficult to put lights on a 17th century stone building, so we don't bother.

(the tree in this illustration isn't ours.  It's a generic one borrowed from the internet.)




On the other hand, we could have put up a tree like this one (below), considering all the books we have in our house:

O Christmas Tree

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas tree, how lovely are your...
over decorated
branches.

This year the 9-year-old took over the decorating of the Christmas tree. And decorated it. And decorated it. It's never had so many ornaments.

We alternate between a Red and Gold tree,
a tree decorated all with silver
and an Angel tree.

This year she chose to use the silver garland and ornaments, but while I was making dinner, she got out the box of Angel stuff too. Yikes! Now the tree is full as full can be and there's overflow angels all over the living room.
What can I say?
It IS beautiful.

Now, who's going to help me UNdecorate come January?
-wendie O