Day #316 - Tree Time

I had a super hard time getting the tree up this year. Travis and I were lazy Thanksgiving weekend and didn't feel like bringing all the bins and tree up..."We'll do it Monday night" we said to ourselves. I for one knew that was unlikely. By the middle of the week I was done kidding myself. Trav ended up taking Friday off and I jumped at the chance as well. We brought everything up and got the tree in the stand and one of the perma-strands on the tree didn't work and I couldn't figure it out. I also ran blinking lights around the bottom of the tree and realized I didn't have another set...off the the store we went.

The store had run out of white lights so I couldn't replace the ones that didn't work, but we bought some colored lights with the blinking feature. When I got home I decided they were too different (one had colors mixed with red and the others were colored mixed with bright pink) ARGHHH. I took off the blinkers and ran them up the middle of the tree, then put the others around the rest. I ran OUT AGAIN!! At this point I kind of wanted to cry and certainly didn't feel much like Christmas cheer. I rustled up one more strand of colored lights and stuck them on the top and it looks fine. Regardless I ran out of time since we had to go to a dinner for Trav's work and didn't finish putting up the tree until today.

When I finally got around to putting on the ornaments I started thinking about where some of them came from. I was surprised to note many of them had stories. Trav's Aunt Carol made us the snowflake doilies, Grandma Dana's glass slipper from last year, my sister Amy who made the tin ornament and gave me the ice cycle ornaments that I love, one I bought Trav for his Xmas stocking with his name on it, the one my Aunt Diane put on a present of popcorn one year that I still have, the new butterfly ornaments I bought on the cheap this year that turned out to be very delicate (I broke two of them) and rather lovely even though they seem sort of plain, the Santa ornaments I have collected over the years when I thought I wanted a theme tree...on and on.

Here are a few:

Then I realized how many decorations I put out at Christmas were given to me as gifts from people - the moose my Mom gave me last year in honor of X-mas in Park City, the candle holder lamp my old boss, Anne Lee, gave me years ago (actually she gave me the tree one year for Christmas - probably 10 years ago), the nativity scene that used to be Trav's parents, the Santa I got from Mel when we used to pick names, the snow globes from my sister Melissa and other people (I have a thing with snow globes), the wreath I got from Arla Westinskow one year, etc. I started to realize that 80% - 90% of what I have to display at Christmas came from other people. It feels good to remember when people thought about you.

I also love the coziness of Christmas. My cat will rotate from stealing my chair, to laying on her back in front of the fire to resting under the tree when the lights are on. This photo is how I feel about Christmas time - it isn't so bright, but just laying in your favorite spot in the glow of the Christmas Tree and a fire blazing away...so lovely.

I am glad I finally got the tree up - now we get to enjoy the fruit of our labor...

I Am Grateful,
HB

Diva Quote: "Sometimes I lie awake at night, and ask, 'Where have I gone wrong?' Then a voice says to me, 'This is going to take more than one night.'" Charles M. Schulz