The Christmas Tree is Finally Up!

It’s been a fun Christmassy day today filled with snow, baking cookies, and putting up the Christmas tree.  We got over 6″ of snow.  It was beautiful but I’m never ready for the first big snowfall.  Since it snowed all day long, I never got my shoveling done.  One of the kids went out in the morning when it looked like it was going to stop but then it got worse again and we got a few more inches.

While we were putting up the tree, Oskar the cat decided to help.  He pretended to be an ornament.  I always set the tree up and let the cats have their fun for about an hour before decorating it.

The Lights

Once Oskar was over his fascination with the tree, we worked on the lights.  I had two really long strands of LED icicle lights.  They didn’t work!  So, yay, I threw them away.  I wasn’t even planning on doing decluttering while working on the tree but I got rid of both sets.  Two more things to add to the count!

I picked up three sets of lights at one of the few rummage sales that I went to this summer.  They were only $1.00 each and they all worked.  Two were LED sets and the other one was a little bit older but still in great condition.  I had been looking for lights for a few years but always seemed to miss the sales.  I finally have a colorful tree again!

The Ornaments on the Christmas Tree

We have lots of ornaments for our tree.  A  lot of them are really old. Most have survived lots of handling by little fingers and curious paws.  We hung some of the junkier plastic ones near the bottom of the tree just in case Oskar was still curious.  Hopefully he doesn’t knock the tree over.

 The Christmas Tree

It’s all decorated now.  It looks a little funny in pics because it’s crooked. Yep.  Crooked.  It’s an old artificial tree that acts like it’s real.  It loses needles all over the place.  I’ve already had to sweep twice.  I’m hoping to find a deal on a new one after Christmas this year.  We really need a new one.  It seems to fit nicely in the spot that I cleared for it but I might look for a little skinnier one.  We just don’t have the room for a wide tree.  One of the sets of lights is blue and white so it’s a very blue tree this year with a few of all the other colors.  It’s really bright.  Probably the brightest tree we’ve ever had.

Baking the Cookies

The last thing I did tonight was baked cookies. There’s a cookie exchange at work on Tuesday so I had to get mine baked today. We only need to bring in 4 dozen this year.  I still need to package them up tomorrow but that shouldn’t take too long. The hardest part is trying to keep the kids from eating them all before I pick out the ones I’m using in the exchange. I made simple Spritz cookies and the kids love them. I think they’re a little boring but one of my co-workers asked me to make them again this year. So I did.  She said I make them very good.  I’m glad to hear that but I hope everyone else isn’t mad that I’m making the same ones again this year.