Christmas decorating

We decorated for Christmas this year. Last year, we were still so burned out from our years in retail, that we just couldn't face decorating. At the last minute, it may even have been on Christmas eve, we put up one of our artificial trees and put some spotlights on the house. We still were a little less than enthusiastic last year, but I just couldn't go with nothing.

This year we were feeling a little iffy, too. We're getting pretty bah-humbug-ish in our old age. A couple of weeks ago, we went through the Christmas decor department of a local garden center which had a bunch of beautiful designer trees. My husband happens to feel that Christmas should be red, green, white, maybe some gold or silver, and contain Santa and elves. Christmas is for children, not for high-buck decorators. But I said something about one day hoping to have a color coordinated, decor-type tree.

Yesterday we pulled out an artificial tree that we had as one of our "extras" from our NC house. We've decided not to have a real tree this year since we'll be traveling and not here to keep an eye on it. We then decided to make a trip to get all new, color-coordinated ornaments. I left the house thinking gold and green. We came back with gold and copper, feathers, and copper glittered twigs. Then I took the four foot tree out of the box and realized how small it is! Gerry had to leave to get new ornament hooks, rather than dig through all the boxes and try to find the ones we owned...and came back with a 6 foot artificial, pre-lighted tree! He said he just kept seeing the disappointment on my face when I realized how many ornaments I'd bought, and how little the tree is!

Here's a picture of the tree tonight. We had to go out today and get more of the garland, and we added a few more coordinated ornaments. I'm really happy with it. It may not scream Christmas in traditional colors, but it makes me really happy. I have more pictures at my picturetrail site -- www.picturetrail.com/windwhisper



Tonight, Gerry lit the house with spots focused on a large green wreath in the center of the house. I set up a lighted Victorian village. Feels good to get back into the mood. I was walking around, admiring how pretty everything was when I realized that Cosmo had left the first gift under the tree...unfortunately I'm not fond of dead mice.