Holiday Preparations

I thought I'd be on top of things for once and put my Christmas tree up this past weekend since next weekend will be full of family activities for Thanksgiving.  I was very excited about this.  We didn't put a tree up last year because Glenna was right at that age where it would have been a month-long battle to keep her away from it.  Well she's a year older, we have a new house, and nothing was stopping me this year!

If you know me very well, you know that I am a very timid decorator.  Usually I rely on my mom (who has done interior decorating professionally) to help me with even the simplest decorating project.  The one area where I may have inherited a few of her genes is Christmas.  I've made my own wreath, come up with a theme for my tree, and have been buying ornaments for years.  I'm not going to tell you my theme- I'll show you when the tree is decorated... and it still isn't...

I logged four hours of work on the tree Saturday and another two Sunday with the result being a mostly lit tree Monday.  Normally dragging the three-part seven-foot-tall tree upstairs, assembling it, and "re-fluffing" the branches is a good two hours of scratchy work.  This year, however, there were sections all over the tree that wouldn't light up.  It's the kind of tree that is supposed to still light with lights burned out, so I decided to replace the fuses in the strands that were not lit.  Finding the plugs and replacing the fuses took a good hour filled with muttered cursing.  Finally, they were all replaced.  I plugged in the tree and presto!  Nothing changed.

I had three options left at this point.  1) String more lights on the sections of the tree that weren't lit.  That seemed a little silly, and wouldn't be a long-term solution.  2) Replace the tree.  This is a five hundred dollar tree I bought in an after-Christmas sale.  That wasn't happening.  3)Unwind the strands that weren't working and replace them carefully so that the tree would still be able to come apart in sections with the lights still attached.  This is the route I took.  So far I have replaced two of the six strands that aren't working.  I don't know what the Christmas tree company pays the person who wraps the branches with the lights, but it isn't enough.  That employee is going above and beyond, my friend.

I am bound and determined to conquer this project soon.  Hopefully pictures will be up shortly.  It can't sideline me for too long: I have a ton of cooking to do for Thursday when we celebrate Thanksgiving with Justin's family and Saturday when we celebrate with mine.  I also have a dirty house to clean before my brother Seth comes to stay with us for four days.  All of my family will be here this weekend.  I can't wait- two of my brothers and my sister-in-law haven't even met their new nephew.  (Who isn't so new anymore.  He started rolling over!)

And in case I forget to say it, my family is who I am thankful for this year.  This may sound like a given, but I'm not saying this lightly.  Dealing with my mother-in-law's leukemia and my dad's prostate cancer these past couple of years has made me acutely aware that life is short and time with family is precious.  I have been so blessed and I thank Him for every day I have with them.  Most of all, I am thankful for the honor of being blessed with my precious son and daughter.  God is good.