We thought you might like to join us while we decorate our tree.
We decided to have a slightly smaller tree this year. After many years of fighting to get it in the stand and tying it to the wall so it won't fall over- not to mention rearranging the whole living room to find a place for it. My mother generously donated a tree. The girls went out to see the Nutcracker with my parents and then the next day they dragged my mother out of her sickbed- well she did go on her own but still,... Then my father brought it over when he brought the girl home. I was so excited! I could hardly wait until they got here! I scrubbed up the tree stand after nearly killing myself trying to get it from the back corner of the top shelf in the closet. Then I dug out a hangar to use as the base for a wreath as my mother also was sending some greenery to decorate with.
They finally came- I went out and my father was walking up with the bag of greenery-
"Hey that's a big branch! Where's the tree?"
Yup yup yup- you guessed it. It was to be a Charlie Brown Christmas.

I admit that at first I was taken aback. The pictures don't really do the tree justice- or rather they DO it justice that it does not really deserve. She HAD warned me that it was small. Quite small. Not this small however. The girls were excited and frankly I was speechless so I (allright grimly) set about hacking off the foot of stem and getting rocks to shove in so that the metal twisters would have something to hold on to and trying to find the 'best' side.
This was not my finest hour.

Time for lights. I believe in an abundance of lights so I have many many strands. I untangled them and fixed the fuse in one plug and spent about 30 minutes wrapping and rewrapping the cords around the branches trying to figure out how to make the wires stay on the suprisingly wet-noodle like branches.
My sense of humor returned when I started to force a second strand on. "Imagine! TWO whole sets!!".
The girls had seen through my cheery facade (ha.) and chimed in with my snickers until we were actually laughing and coming up with cheerful things about the tree.
" Hey we won't lose a bird in it this year!"  "Watering will not be a problem"
"Well we will look back at this and laugh- 'remember the HUGE tree we had that year?
SO big we could hardly walk around it!'"
Well you had to be there,...

I got quite the jolly reaction when I pulled the one foot section of gold tinsel and said
" Hey we can use the gold tinsel this year!"
*ahem*
I did have a hard time of it trying to get all of the tinsel actually ON the tree but did manage to in the end with a little creative wrapping around the back.

I had planned to have the girls decorate the next day as we had a lot of other things planned for this day- however after discovering that things had taken about two hours less then expected I set them loose. It helped somewhat that a large number of my ornaments had been broken earlier in the year by some teenager who lives in my house,...

CiCi did more on the top accompanied by intermittent shrieks from me-
" DON'T PULL - IT WILL FALL OVER !! "
and the ever popular-
" Oh GREAT- now it's leaning again . "
Fixing it was simple- she simply reached in to the trunk and yanked it back-
" THERE is that better ? "
" Yes ."
These are the moments of our lives.

Posy stuck to the lower sections. She spent a great deal of time going on about her favorite ornament and where some part lost for YEARS could have gone.
On and on and on,...

Voila' !
In the end it looked as all of our trees look- as if we had stood a few feet back and chucked wads of ornaments to it. Or as CiCi put it " It looks like we dipped it in glue and then a box of decorations".
In other words beautiful.
So we have come to the conclusion that it is not the size of the Christmas tree that counts but rather what you do with what you have.
(Now they are too young to get ALL the meanings in that sentence but someday this little (aiw) lesson will stand them in good stead- or at least make them laugh like their mother and then they will understand right? Mama really didn't drink anymore- she was just one ornament short)

Posy discovers FAO Schwartz.
CiCi discovered cash a few years ago and hasn't wavered in her devotion.

Samantha- our newest addition is excited too.
Here are a few of my dolls- yeah  yeah yeah I KNOW.

Emily is used to the trees
and the dolls .
She made her opinion of both very clear in ways we won't go into here,...

I have a few more dolls but I haven't had time to spruce everyone up .
I am hoping to make a lot of new outfits etc. the large dolls need a complete overhaul.
I'll add them when I am done.
I know- I can't wait either !
:B

Well I have managed to put it off for almost the entire day- but if I want to avoid my yearly ritual of putting up the outside lights in the driving icy rain and wind I'd better go now.
Oh who am I kidding? I love to stand out there barefoot (yes always I don't know why either) with rain running down my shirt trying to reach that top branch with now numbed fingers . Maybe it's the added excitement of a possible electrocution that keeps me going,....

I'm now officially in the 'Holiday Spirit'.
You have been warned.

In case it is not clear after reading the above- I really do love our little tree- once the shock - er shock is too strong a term- suprise wore off I found it to be adorable- please don't send all my gifts back Santa !
QZ :)
 
 

12/09/01