O (Kinda Large) Tannenbaum

If there is one very good reason for owning a long mini-van, it is this:  

You can fold down the seats, and 

slide your fresh Christmas tree right in; 

  no roof-tying insanity.  

Me, wandering through a
tree farm, looking adorable.

Nowadays, we buy a fresh tree from a garden center around the corner from That Old House.  No more venturing into the vast Jersey wilderness to hack down our own specimen, followed by a hair-raising trip home on Route 80, with me convinced we'd cause a multi-car pileup when our tree went flying off the roof.  The year the tree farm guy tied a giant tree on with dental floss was the last straw.  

Our tree, hogtied in the back of the
minivan, Sunday afternoon.

No, now... we don heavy gloves (why is it always so cold on a tree lot?) and hunt the local lot.  Here's this year's victim lucky candidate, fresh out of the van and wrestled into the stand.

Late Sunday afternoon,
blue light time.

Which means ... all of our trees are UP, faux and fresh.  Some are partly finished, others awaiting their balls and bling.  The house is a tip, with still-to-be-deployed decorations and wreaths and garlands and ribbons running amuck, everywhere, but ... there's time.  And as always, what gets done, gets done ... and what doesn't, doesn't.

Fuzzy phone picture, Sunday evening.
Howard decides to do the lights another time.

I would attempt to put the lights on the sunroom tree, but I don't want to get scratched shoving strands of lights into the tree's innards; I hate pain.

Howard is a boy, so he gets to do the hard ouchy stuff.  :-)

Happy Monday morning, Tree!
(The picture is crooked, not the tree.  That's my story.)

My Dad believed that the more painful, scratchy, and fierce a tree's needles, the better it would last for the whole season.

Howard has adopted this belief, and has the scars to prove it.

Today, the tree looks happy, relaxed,

and ready for its bling.  

Last year's sunroom tree.

How do you choose a tree?

Do you cut one down, or find it on a lot?

Or take it out of a box?

Just a dozen days till Christmas Eve!

And remember:

Ho Ho Ho!  -- Cass

Visit The Graphics Fairy for a mind-boggling collection of vintage art.  Thank you, Karen!

What Inspires You at Christmas?

Okay, as you ready your home

for Christmas, what inspires you?

Me, I am inspired every year

when these come up from the cellar: 

15 boxes of holiday stuff.

Howard and I did that this morning before he went to work.

(Sporting a bit of basement schmutz on his suit,

which hopefully rubbed off on other subway commuters.)

I'm going to be moving the boxes into the Dining Room;

that's my central staging area for Christmas prep. 

(Last year's charming jumble o' stuff, above.)

Other boxes figure in at Christmas, delivered almost daily.

Below, something for Howard, and a matching one for Josh.

Sshhh . . . don't tell, don't peek!

This corner will hold the Dining Room tree.

A reminder:

Fashion these tiny cups into ornaments for the Dining Room tree.

As for other inspiration, I've been poking around Blog Land and

seeing gorgeous ideas for making homes just sing with joy

at Christmas.

New favorites?  The many homes featuring natural decor --

big pinecones and wide swathes of fir roping.  Stunning.

I will have good intentions of doing something like that,

but will end up with glue-and-glitter anyway.  I do like my holiday bling!

But my first chore is wading through these:

I love opening these packed boxes each year.

As I pull out each ornament or figurine or candleholder, and 

unwrap it, it feels almost like . . . Christmas!

:-)

Happy Christmas to all.

Here at That Old House, it's time for lunch, and then

I must drop a bit of Dylan Dog's latest lawn sculpture at the vet's.

Too much information?

All the best ... Cass