Thanksgiving/Christmas tradition

It has been my experience that people fall into one of three categories when it comes to when you put up your Christmas tree: A) As early as acceptable, usually around Thanksgiving weekend B) two or so weeks before Christmas and C) Christmas Eve.

It is the last group of people that I totally do not get. Christmas EVE?? All that work for like, what, a few days of enjoyment? Even if you leave it up for the 12 days of Christmas, til Boxing Day or something, that is still not acceptable.

I LOVE Christmas trees. I love the lights, the ornaments, all the sparkle and special ornaments that mean something to you. When I was little and was old enough to help decorate it was fun to find my favorites and find that special place on the tree for it. Heaven forfend my brother and I wanted to hang the same ornament. I either had to be gracious about it and let him hang it (unlikely for my 8 year old self) or pull seniority (definitely likely).

I think it began sometime when I was in college that my family began putting up our Christmas tree on Thanksgiving weekend. I would come home for that weekend and we would put the tree up. I am a firm believer in having as much opportunity to gaze upon and enjoy your tree as possible BEFORE Christmas. After Christmas all the anticipation is over, the magic has happened and now the tree needs to be put away, or tossed out.

I held out for a long time about having a real tree. I felt it was the only way to be truly traditional, despite the fact that most of our family was allergic. We eventually got an artificial one. That is what we have now. I have different feelings about real trees now. I really hate the idea of killing a tree for my personal enjoyment once a year. And the cost seems unnecessary. The Bob went out and bought the one we have now two years ago when I had delivered Cooper early and couldn't conceive of putting up the tree and all the lights etc. just after a C-section and in a serious brain fog. It comes in three parts, pre-wired with lights. It takes less than 15 minutes to put up, outside of the decorations. I took two pictures, one without a flash. I used to be an avid white lights person, but when he came home with this tree, I was okay with colored lights. As long as they don't flash or twinkle. They always blink in a pattern and it irritates me. That is probably as close to OCD as I get, being irritated by patterns in blinking lights.

Anyway, the tree is up. I also decorated our window boxes. Rather than spend $60 to get window box swags from a place like Smith and Hawken, I did my own from greenery in our yard. Our holly bushes have a lot of berries this year so it adds to the effect.

The other thing I did today was de-Buster my house. Buster is our beagle, and he has gone for a week long visit with the ex-wife. I love de-Bustering my house. Beagles shed like no other dog I have experienced, and I have lived with a golden retriever. I have hair rollers everywhere - in my bedroom, in my car, in my office. I am removing hair from my clothes all the time. So the opportunity to remove the hair for a week from my life is soooo nice. I love Buster, but I love being hair free too.