Deck the Halls!

 I am so far behind on posting.  It all started last weekend.  DH decided he was going to put up the outside lights which really surprised me as he normally holds off until the last minute and doesn't get into doing this.  We carried all the outside decoration from the storage building.  He put lights up on the front porch and across the front of the garage.  I put up the wreaths and the pointsettias. And he put the inflatable Harley Santa up in the front yard.  That was it for him.  And the inside wasn't even started.

We don't have a huge tree anymore.  Haven't had a huge one since Gretchen was a puppy and we decided that it would be smarter to put the tree up on a table.  But last year, the tree was a mess.  Some of the lights were on all the time, some flashed on and off like a traffic circle, and some didn't light up at all.  So I decided to take them off and see if I could figure out what was wrong.  It took me over three hours to get them off because those little chinese workers attached them with miniature zip ties instead of the little clips.  Once I got them all off, I found out there were three of those little flasher bulbs on one string.  I replaced them all,  Didn't do a thing....still flashing, solid, and dead.  I tried replacing some more bulbs....nothing.  I finally through them all in the trash and went out and bought two replacement strings only this time I got the clear ones instead of the colored ones.  Well, I had to make another trip and get two more strings of lights because the new ones had the same number of lights but were only two inches apart.  It took almost three hours to restring all the lights because the top half of the tree comes off and the bottom branches fold up so you have to be very careful how you string them.  All in all, I was happy with how they came out but it would have been so much easier to just buy a new tree with the lights already on it.

And then I still had to put all the ornaments on it!  That took me quite a while the next day after I hauled everything out of the closet and downstairs.  Most of our ornaments are from the first few years we were married when we painted ceramic ornaments.  I also made some beaded ornaments and some felt ones.  And then there are the ones my mother and mother-in-law made and some the kids made.   And some we picked up in special places here and there.  So it is definitely our tree even though I have given the kids some of the ornaments they specially liked.

This is a little blurry but you can see all the lights on it.  It glows!

Harley climbed up on the back of the couch while I was decorating the fireplace in the family room.  Hmmm, what's with that?

I think he was a little annoyed because I told him he couldn't play with any of the balls on the tree.

Now I still have all the Christmas presents to buy, some to mail, and some cookies to make too.  I think I will wait until Monday as we are going to have a serious cold front come through and take away all this lovely 75 -80 degree weather we have been having.  Darn.