Decking and fa-la-la-ing

We have been trying to get ready for Christmas.

We spent a couple of evenings after work this week Christmas shopping.  With the exception of a couple of gift cards, we are done. Through. Finished.  We have a very small family, but one of them is very, very picky.  Glad Mother does not read this blog.

Then there's the decorating. This has involved moving almost all the furniture in the living room around to free up the "best" corner for the Christmas tree.  This also involved organizing my corner so the projects in progress were not spilling all about (that took longer than moving furniture and that is shameful to admit).

Then we had to go get the Christmas tree.  We buy a Fraser Fir every year from the same group of volunteers, mainly because they are so cheerful and happy and full of the spirit that it makes the discussions we have bearable (like, no, that's too bushy and whoever gets stuck sitting on that end of the sofa is going to get swatted by tree limbs . . .or, don't you think that's a little tall? Remember, we're outside, but in the house, we have a definite ceiling height . . .or, you know, why don't you stand next to that one and see if it's about the same size you are and that would be perfect--for some reason, Dearly Beloved did not think that was funny).

We had the yearly light disaster.  Dearly Beloved was thrilled when the Big Kid got big enough to do the lights. Then he got married and moved out, so Dearly Beloved gave the task to Baby Girl. Then she moved out (possibly to get out of doing the lights).  The last few years, the job has fallen on his shoulders again.  Last year we only used one very long string of lights because we had a very skinny tree that didn't need much.  This year, we have a very thick and tall tree. It needs more lights.  We thought we had them. We discovered that several of the strings were dead. Dead, dead, dead.  So, we had to go buy lights, which, two weeks before Christmas, are in short supply.  One place had only blue ones.  One had only extremely expensive and short strings of novelty lights left.  We finally found the desired mini-lights.  On a white cord.  Not a green cord that you can persuade yourself is camouflaged in the tree. White. Blinding while. Blizzard white.

I'm trying to talk myself into believing that it looks like a lacing of snow through the branches.

I have almost completed ornamenting the tree.  I still have to place the gold filigree pieces that weigh almost nothing on the branches that can't hold much weight, and the crocheted snowflakes go on after them. And we have not placed the tabletop decorations, nor have we pulled the Christmas dishes out.  And I haven't played a single Christmas CD or watched any of the collection of videos and DVD's we've accumulated over the years.

And I haven't stitched a lick since arriving home from Williamsburg.

And Sunday is winding down and it will be back to work again.

I need a day-stretcher!!