10 December 2006

Well Begun is Half Done

We had so much to do today! (I'll be glad to go to work tomorrow. It should be less strenuous!) We slept late because we had stayed up last night watching a special about a Christmas lights display contest in Richmond, Virginia. Wow. (I'm sure there are more appropriate words for these displays, but "wow" will do.) And partially because James seems to be coming down with a cold and he needed to sleep.

After breakfast we ran to JoAnn, because I had three 50 percent off coupons and needed some plastic storage boxes, and to Hobbytown, where James bought some little models for a couple of the guys at work. We then had to stop at B.J.'s for milk, orange juice, and other groceries for the week, and at Lowe's to get more birdseed for the feeder. So by the time we got home it was four-ish. James had to eat because he was crashing and then it was dinnertime. While he was cooking I did another load of clothes and tidied the speaker wires in the corner where the tree will be and vacuumed.

So we didn't start on the tree until about six. This is a new tree, so it had to be unboxed and assembled and then fluffed. Very boring procedure. At least there was the Christmas edition of America's Funniest Home Videos to amuse us. Then came the worst part of Christmas tree decorating, Those Damn Lights.

However, in the past we had only 100 lights on our 4 1/2 foot tree. This is six feet tall and we thought it deserved more. Last fall, we had bought the tree at Seasonal Concepts. They also had all their lights on sale. James took a fancy to some mini-lights that had large bulb size covers over them, seventy in total on two strings. So he put them on the tree in a spiral pattern like the red on a candy cane. Then with two strings of 100 lights each we circled the tree and filled in the gaps between the bigger lights.

And we put "Little Blaze," the star on.

By that time it was after ten so we have quit. James will bring up the ornament boxes tonight or tomorrow and I can decorate the tree and do the tinsel when I get home.

1 comment:

Emma said...

Oooh, I know how you feel, Linda. I started my tree late at night this year, too, and only got it set up and the lights and garland on before I called it quits! It's now done, BTW, and twinkling merrily in the "music" section of my living room.

(Oh, and thank you for the card! I couldn't remember if I gave you my new address or not. Yours is coming this week! :) )