It seemed like a good idea at the time

All I can do is sympathise. One tree should be enough for any household though and letting the number go above one is often the beginning of the end.

catch up with us when you're all cleared up. I assume you've got your calendar up and prepped...

Kerri.

Yow! Just the one is enough to give me the heebee-jeebees about taking it down.

Lynn Siprelle, Editor

gave most of it to charity. When DH went on disability we had to sell our huge new house (it was a good thing, I never liked that place) and bought a small brick home, I had 25 Rubbermaid HUGE containers of decorations. I had to weed thru most of it and give it away because I had nowhere to put it. But the best thing is, what used to take me 2 days now takes me 2 hours to finish. Ahhhhh....and I got the boxes down to 7!

FIFTEEN trees??? Good God.

I had two, each of them 3 feet tall, and that was bad enough!!

I should be able to post a great big done and end this blog topic .

15 trees sounds more impressive than it is. 3 of those trees are made of wood(a gift from a wood working pal), and don't require decorating. They're out on the porch. Another 3 are those conical, sparkly, gold mesh thingys that don't get decorations either. They just stack into each other and store away. 1 is a singing tree with a hat and he does not need decorations either. Honest....it did not look like I was operating a tree lot here.

They're packed up now and out in the garage. I have all the other stuff packed up and just have to go and fit those boxes back into the storage space. They came out so they should go back in right(I need an eye rolling guy Lynn). This is my task for this morning.

I have the big ladder in the house(had to get all the garland and lights down from the top of the cupboards), so I plan to pull all the other plants down and give them a cleaning off and rearrange things up there. That should keep me and Norah Jones occupied for the afternoon. She is my new vice right now, I am in love with her "Feels Like Home" CD.

I'm sooo itching to say done and move on. Later then.

OK, I'm not completely crazy. Last year I gave my brother and SIL my 6 ft. green artificial tree.

This year I was SO craving something entirely different from my normal style, that I bought a 4 ft. white artificial tree.

I decorated it with blue lights and all blue and silver decorations (well, the kids actually did most of it). It looked pretty darn nice.

SO, partly because I was dreading finding room in the closet, and partly because--well, I don't know--I decided to take off the Cmas decorations and put on white lights and silk flowers and leave it up. I've heard of other people doing something like this. It's plugged into the same switch as my livingroom lamp, so it comes on and off each time I come and go.

I'm thinking of it as a sort of "charm bracelet" tree, in that I can collect things all through the year to add to it. Example: Gage made me two paper hearts the other day. I think I'll hang them up.

OR, I could decide that this is way too stupid and tear the thing down before St. Patrick's Day. I'll let you know.

Julie
"We must have patience for love, born of an accidental look." --Me

I don't mind being a little behind the curve. I get so busy during the Christmas season that I feel like I never get to slow down and really enjoy my (artficial) tree and other decorations, so I tend to leave them all up until about the middle of January so I can sit and be lazy and admire them. It's about time, though, so I've spent most of today taking ornaments down. It'd go faster, but I decided I want to make a list of what I've got and when I bought it so I don't forget.

Julie, your tree sounds really neat! Definitely different!

Tucked away somewhere I still have the 18" tree and the decorations I used to put on it before we got a full-sized tree. I keep toying with the notion of pulling it out, too, but so far I haven't. It was awfully cute, though. Maybe next year.

I'm finished with Christmas until next time .

Like Sparrow, I don't get to *fully* enjoy the Christmas decor until after Christmas. My best day of the season is Boxing Day(the day after Christmas), when I sit all day in my jammies and solitude and feast on leftovers, new gifts, and enjoy my tree and other special decorations. Will I answer my phone?? Maybe, maybe not.

Oh Julie, I so still envision you riding the garden tractor and growing tomatoes. Times change I suppose, so I'll have to picture you decorating your tree all year long. Really? You are going to leave it up? It sounds quite lovely, but will leaving it up take a little of the thrill out of it? A big part of the joy of Christmas is getting the beautiful decorations out when you've not seen them for a year. Maybe that's just me though.

And now I'm heading over to the room at a time thread with my Christmas dejunked house. It needs a good cleaning .

The red and green and gold will still come out of the closet for the month of December. It's only the other 11 months that my little white tree will be wearing odd or spring-like items.

So, between that and the other Cmas items that go elsewhere around the house, the thrill will still be there, such as it is.

Truthfully, it's been more of a PODA item the past few years than an enjoyable thing to look forward to. Although, the kids helping this year did make a bit of a difference. Also, their Dad brought me a huge, beautiful poinsettia, which is still blooming nicely in my window.

Jammies does sound good!

Julie
"We must have patience for love, born of an accidental look." --Me

Think "seasonal tree!"

Hearts and Roses for Valentines,
Shamrocks for St. Patrick's Day
All the cute Easter stuff
Red, White and Blue All summer (OH! Lighthouse ornaments)
Apples in September
..............

I keep little white lights twined through the ivy that wraps my caot tree in a corner of the hall and hang "stuff" from the pegs all year....

Cuuuuuuuuuute!

Blessings,
Lenora
"...if woman's work is never done, why bother about how much of it [isn't] getting done at any given moment?"
~ Claire Fraser in The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon

Now that you mention it, I DO have a bunch of patriotic ribbons and pins and the like, in a nice old stationery box on the top shelf of the white wicker shelves in the kids' room. (Notice that I have to gloat about knowing exactly WHERE they are, since I can say that about so FEW things in my house )

Thanks Lenora!

Julie
"We must have patience for love, born of an accidental look." --Me