It's Beginning to Look Alot Like Christmas

It's beginning to look alot like Christmas around here. Seth loves wearing a Santa hat and walks around the house saying "Ho, Ho, Ho". We put the Christmas decorations up the weekend after Thanksgiving. The kids enjoyed putting the ornaments on the tree. This year, we opted for a fake tree. For years I resisted. Nothing beats the look and smell of a fresh conifer. However, remembering to water it and dealing with the endless litter of dropped needles on the floor was trying, not to mention having to fork out cash for one and having to string and trouble-shoot lights on the darned thing every year. That's probably not a problem for most people, but when you are a perfectionist like me, it's a long process. I have to make sure there are lights evenly distributed, even inside near the trunk.

Now with the fake tree, the light job is done for me. And I must say that our fake tree looks pretty awesome. The fake "needles" even scratched me when I was putting on the ornaments, just like a real one. However I'm still not sure I saved alot of time this year. It took me hours (no kidding) to bend each little branch and branchlet into the perfect position. Brian tried to help, but I just had to redo his sections again! That's my anal-retentive side shining through! I'm seriously thinking that after Christmas we should just carry the tree downstairs whole and throw a sheet over it until next year, thus avoiding the need to do a ton of reshaping next year. Unfortunately I don't think it will fit through the door at the bottom of the stairs. Darn the luck! Oh and it figures, our fake tree has the last laugh. After getting it set up, I still had to do some vacuuming to pick up the fake needles that dropped as I was shaping it. And the sad thing is that those needles don't have that awesome pine smell! It's a good thing we got it on clearance last year as it's here to stay.