What Was I Thinking?????

File this under "What was I thinking???"  Our slim 9 ft pre-lit Christmas tree is 8+ years old and certain patches are no longer pre-lit. I replaced bulbs (even though it's the one out, the rest remain lit type). I replaced fuses. No luck.

So I got the bright idea to take off all the old lights and replace them with new LED lights. It took *five* hours-- with wire cutters -- to remove the lights before I turned it over to Sons #1 & 2 for the final hour. (So I could eat dinner at midnight.)

Not only where the strands were wrapped around the branches (which I knew), but there were attached with hundreds of tiny green plastic clips, assorted green twist ties and little green zip ties (which I did not know).

It took another hour this morning to re-string with 450 LED lights (forget wrapping around branches!). So if you come to my house in May and my Christmas tree is still up, it's all because I was too cheap to buy another prelit tree. Seriously, this one is at least 8 years old. I got my money's worth.

Oh, and to see my hands and forearms, you'd think I tried to give a pack of feral cats a bath.

Merry Christmas

I hope you all have a safe and Merry Christmas!


A little more holiday fun: http://gpsinformation.info/main/merryxmas.swf

Twas the Day After Christmas, and All Through the House...

CHAOS reigns!!!!!

Actually, it's not that bad (any more). I did manage to get the unwrapped gifts into the recipients' respective rooms. Many, however, are still in their boxes and stacked on the floor. But at least I managed to get them all out of the living room.

Santa Claus - and Grammy Claus (my mom) - were very good to the boys this year. Among their haul this year: a Star Wars light saber that lights up and makes sounds (Son #3), a large teddy bear (Son #3), a Star Wars light saber that plugs in to the TV so you can battle on-screen opponents (Son #2), various Nintendo DS and Game Cube games, stuffed pink pigs (Son #2), a Lego dragon kit (Son #1), a build-your-own robot (Son #1), two stuffed lambs (Son #3), Bionicles (for all 3), a mini roboreptile and a mini robosapien (both for Son #3), Barnes & Noble gift cards (Sons #1&2), pajamas (for all 3), two DVDs (Chicken Little and Over the Hedge), a bracelet with a small lucite square containing a real beetle (Son #1 loves it), and a Chinese dragon statue (Son #1 again). The list goes on and one.

Dear Hubby received three Star Wars DVDs, some dress shirts and a sweater from my mom. I gave him a bottle of Polo Double Black cologne. This is in addition to the two early Christmas gifts he received within the past couple of month (a set of Litury of the Hours, plus a backpack, sleeping bag and combo). My gifts included a small but really cute leather handbag, an iPod Shuffle (both from Dear Hubby), as well as three sweaters, two casual tops and two pins from my mother. I also received a Lowe's gift card from my brother-in-law. His family draws names for Christmas and he picked mine.

Now we all know that getting gifts is not the true meaning of Christmas. My kids are very tolerant of my near constant reminders of this fact. But once Christmas morning comes, let's just say the message gets a little lost in the mix. It's hard not to be seduced but pretty wrapping paper and bows.

I hope you and yours had a very Merry Christmas and may the true spirit of Christmas remain long after the mess is cleaned up and the decorations put away.

Deck The Halls...

Above is the finished product. The tree is an artificial 9.5 foot pre-lit (thank goodness!) slim pine. I think its scale suits the room, which is pretty small, but with 11 foot ceilings. The photo was taken at an odd angle - it's hard to tell, but ours is a corner fireplace. We painted that wall red as an accent. The white portion above the red is actually where the ceiling slopes downward. Obviously it looks better when you can see it in 3-dimensions.

Do you see the little village on the floor to the right of the tree? Son #1 and I had fun putting that together, although I have to watch it. Son #1 has an offbeat sense of humor and will sometimes make small "modifications". For example, there's a small fox that he propped up so it looked like it was peeing on the tiny fire hydrant.

I didn't set up my Nativity this year (I'm down to only one Wise Man anyway), but I did put the Holy Family under our tree. My advent wreath has a smaller Nativity included - that's on a table that's not visible in the photo.

You can't see it in the above photo, but there are small plush toys tucked in the tree. They are collection of Rudolph characters. My mother bought them for me at CVS Drugs a few years ago. I have the entire set: Rudolph, Sam the Snowman, Coach Reindeer, Hermie, Yukon Cornelius, Clarice, Abominable Snow Monster, Tall Skinny Elf, Grumpy Head Elf, Santa, King Moonracer (lion) and of course all of the misfit toys: train with square wheels, jelly gun, cowboy riding the ostrich, spotted elephant, Charlie in the box, plane that doesn't fly, and the doll (why is she a misfit anyway - she seemed perfectly fine to me). I'm probably omitting a couple.

Now, back to the tree. Here are a few more of our ornaments:


The ornaments above are Son #3's baby ornaments. Each of my kids has a set but for some reason Sons #1&2 opted not to put theirs on the tree this year.

More Christmas Spirit

Here are some more photos of our ornament collection. Below are some lovely glass bird ornaments. Son #1 has a fascination with peacock feathers so that ornament is his. I liked it so much that my mother sent one to me as well, but it's not visible in the photo. The little gold bird with the purple feather tail is Son #3's from last year. The ornament in the bottom left corner of the photo is a bird in a nest.


The below photo isn't great, but it's of three glass pink pig ornaments. The ones on the right and left belong to Son #2 (aside from Betty Boop, he loves pink pigs). The one in the center has wings. That one is mine, since I have a thing for flying pigs. As you can probably guess, this is pretty much the only pink we have in our house.

These are the Hallmark photo ornaments from a couple of years ago. Although you cannot see the photographs well, the one of the left is of Son #3 when he was 2. The one in the center is Son #2's First Communion photo. The one of the right is of all three of my sons. All the photos were take taken two years ago.

Tomorrow I'll post more pix, including a full length view of the tree (requested via email by a non-blogging reader/friend of mine).

Getting Into the Christmas Spirit

I'm borrowing an idea from Lala (you can visit her blog by clicking on the title: Insight to Lala's World). I'm posting some photos of the special ornaments that adorn our artificial 9.5 foot slim Christmas tree.

My ornaments are clustered by 'theme' on the tree. Over all, it's a hodge-podge of collections. We try to buy one special ornament each year for the boys that commemorate their activities, interests, etc. Unfortunately, my mother and I can't seem to stick to the one ornament "rule". :-)


The ornaments above are part of our collection of White House ornaments. My mother has been sending them each year for about six years now.
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It's hard to see the top ornament in the above photo. It's Dear Hubby's policeman bell ornament. He was a police officer from 1992-1999 - a job he loved. The other ornament is mine. No, I'm not a convict. Some of you might recognize it as the Hamburglar from McDonald's. I worked as a secretary in their regional office a few years back.

One year I had the opportunity to don the Hamburglar suit (the fiberglass head stunk!) and accompany Ronald McDonald himself on a tour. We visited one of the local McDonald's restaurants, before visiting the local Ronald McDonald House (it's where the families of sick children can stay while their ill loved one is receiving medical treatment at a local hospital). Afterward, we visited the kids at Children's Hospital. Something as simple as two idiots in costume brought a lot of smiles to kids and adults alike. Despite the heat (it was 85 degrees that day) and the smell, it really was a fun day. It was also a nice McMemory.



The ornaments above belong to Son #2. When he was very young - 2 or so - he developed a 'crush' on Betty Boop, or "Miss Boop" as he called her (he's quite the gentleman). My mother-in-law had a little Betty Boop doll that Son #2 would carry around when he visited her house. His uncles were mortified. Their nephew with a doll - the horror!!! Betty Boop mysteriously vanished, never to be seen again. Gee, I wonder who was behind that? (you can't hear the sarcasm in my voice, but it's there) My mother got even by sending Son #2 another Betty Boop - ahem - action figure, which he still has. He drinks his cocoa from a Boop mug, and yes, has a few Boop ornaments.

I'll post more pix soon!