Thanksgiving turned out better than expected. Now all thoughts turn towards Christmas. We've already got 99% of the shopping done. Gotta love a man who hates crowds for that motivating 'get out there early' spirit! Since December seems to be flying by faster than ever I guess that was a good thing, because if you snap your eyes long enough Christmas will be upon us pretty soon!
My Florida kids put out our Christmas decorations while they were here at Thanksgiving. All except the tree. That tree is becoming a dilemma. See, we gave the kids our old antique tree after last Christmas so for the first time in umpteen years we have no tree to drag out of the attic.
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| Last year's Christmas tree |
We were all set to chop a live tree down from the woods behind the house, but I hate killing a tree and am having trouble taking that leap. So we've been to all the normal fake tree outlets to look over the selections and tree prices are outrageous. After that we started visiting thrift stores. I have no fear in fixing up a used one. The one we had used to be mom's tree and it was beautiful by the time I got finished turning all the branches downward (like they had the weight of snow on them). I thought we'd found a decent one yesterday at a good cheap price. It had lights that didn't work to boot! But my tree connoisseur (the same one who wanted to shop early) didn't like it. So that hunt continues!
Meanwhile, while I sit in my Christmas inspired living room with the large empty corner I've started thinking that perhaps we don't even need a tree! Maybe tucking some cedar and hollie along the mantle piece and in other visible places would meet the need for green without it having to be vertical! After looking at some of the crazy alternative ideas on Pinterest (like pilling books into a tree shape) I'm starting to think outside my box a little. It's not like we have little kids and need to put a train set under the tannenbaum branches!
I don't know what we'll eventually end up with... maybe nothing, 'cause nothing is what I'm looking at right now. And I find that life goes on, even if Christmas is upon us.
