And it was ever thus...
My first Christmas: December, 1951. Dad and some of his friends would go out in the woods and cut down trees for us. Didn't buy a tree from a tree lot until I was older and we moved to Florida. Few ornaments, lots of tinsel.
The checkered doll was named "Dot". I carried her around for a couple of years. I still remember the piggy bank, too. And this is about as close as I ever got to horseback riding (except for one forgettable experience on my Aunt's farm).
I love to decorate for Christmas. I start with my Advent wreath and the creche, then the house virtually explodes with holiday accumulata. Unfortunately, I don't like UNdecorating, so I rarely put everything out. This year, I've limited it to my Santa collection and my Nutcrackers (which are always part of the decor no matter what). And, of course, the tree.
This is my 2009 Christmas tree.
It looks very like the 2008, 2007...and back to around 1999 trees, since we have a silk one. We get the pine scent in the house with a real wreath.
I love our tree...it takes about 3 days to get it fully decorated. I use the Martha Stewart method (don't judge me!). It's a 4 step process.
1. Place the lights from the trunk outward, winding each branch seperately. It's a pain, but I only have to re-do them about every three or four years so it's worth it.
2. Hang the shiny glass balls deep toward the trunk. They reflect the lights and it gives it a lot of depth.
3. Hang the special ornaments all round the tree. I've reached the point where I could decorate 2 trees quite easily. We get an ornament from each place we visit, and for many years I made a new ornament each year - mostly angel variations. I haven't done that in about 3 years. Just run out of time/energy.
4. Drape the tinsel garland. I don't miss those individual strands of tinsel at all. I could drape a strand at a time for about 15 minutes, then it was just fling gobs at the tree til I ran out. Garland is easier.
I even have a wee tree on my desk at work, with tiny ornaments I've accumulated from here and there. My Aunt Mary crocheted the doily under it many many years ago.
3 comments:
I love your first Christmas photo and your trees, pearl! And thank you for sharing your decorating process. I think I've heard it before in bits and pieces, but it's good to see it written out. I think I will try that next year when I am in full control of the tree, lol!
Did you see that itunes has a free 20 song holiday music sampler?
No I didn't know that -- I'm still mad at iTunes for 'eating' over 100 songs in my library with that last so called upgrade.
But for free I might take a peek. Maybe it'll replace a couple of the ones they lost.
LOVE IT! What a great photo. Really takes you back, right down to the floor rug. I so love when you post the old photos of you.
I'm rather anal about the tree decorating too. Definitely starting with the trunk for the lights and every year i have to readjust to make it work in the proper spacing by the time i get to the top.
It takes me two days since i scaled back. (It once too me a total of 6 hours just to get the lights on properly with a particularly difficult tiered tree, now THAT was a beautiful tree and looked totally different.)
I finally found garland that was cooler and lighter weight than beads and like your tree pearl, m Christmas tree photo looks the same each year. Like you i also stick colored balls in the inside, i have small ones that are perfect for that.
iTunes ate your 100 songs????? Do you have any idea why? I am always afraid of those upgrades and don't even understand what we get for them. I HATE upgrades on any computer application.
I've not been on the computer two much. I've made a list of things to do including laundry, wrap presents, and update my blog, and now i think i'm going to go take a nap. I'm putting that on the list too!
If you havemore photos of you at Christmas as a little girl, pearl, i hope you add some more!
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