Early For A Change

Melissa put her little kindergarten angel atop the tree. I love that angel..

I've usually held to tradition, where I got my Christmas stuff out of the attic on the day after Thanksgiving. This tradition started after the girls went away to college. They were usually still here on the day after Thanksgiving and they helped me do all this (well, some helped a lot, some complained a lot). We all had fun though. Then when my youngest finished college she stayed at home for a while when she was job hunting and finally house hunting. Last year was the first year NObody was here.

Gosh, but it sucked! Left to our own devices, with no chipper inspirational "let's do it" we sadly took until about 5 days before Christmas to put everything on the tree and get rid of the horrid mass of storage boxes that had camped out in my living room for a month. Were it not for the fact that Melissa came home for Christmas I'm sure the décor we now enjoy would have been leftovers from 2010.

Kitty tests the lower ornaments to make sure they stay on.

I'm pleased to say that for this year, 2011, we are way ahead of schedule. Again, we have Melissa to thank. She's the chipper one, the Nudger, who gets us on fire for ornaments. Plus this year, thinking ahead to the time she would show up for Thanksgiving, I had the boxes down from the attic way ahead of schedule....waiting for her arrival. (I can be smart when I want to).

The old rubber tree is still hanging in there. Gosh, how old is it now? It was Mom's for forever. Then when she upgraded herself, I got the old one. I'd say I've had it about 25 years myself. Each  year a few more pieces fall off. I now have a large gallon baggie full of them. Each year we say we're going to glue them back on when we put the tree away (maybe this will be the year).

So we have the tree up, the lights and ornaments are on... It's beautiful at night. Don't you love the glow of a Christmas tree? And now I have a month to enjoy it!