A Christmas tree!

Christmas has officially arrived at this Salisbury household this year. This is far more significant this year than in years past....

When we lived in the townhouse, we used to decorate our 2 ft tall potted Norfolk Pine with extreme-miniature ornaments, pile up the presents on the kitchen table, and put the Norfolk Pine literally on top of them. I'd also hang a wreath outside the front storm door.

Last year was our first year in this house. I hung holly garlands from some of the door frames, decorated the mailbox with a mini-poinsettia garland, hung the wreath outside with two holly garlands, and I attempted to hang stockings over our fireplace (there's no mantle and packing tape doesn't work well...). I even attempted to hang lights from our front porch despite all the warnings about being pregnant and standing on ladders. And of course, we continued the Norfolk Pine tradition.

This year, though, Christmas is here in all its glory for 2 reasons.
1. We bought a tree. It's a 5 foot artificial tree with 300 lights already strung on it. All I have to do is unfold the stand, insert the bottom half of the tree into it (and secure it), insert the top half into the bottom, shape the branches, connect the light strings, and voila... a beautiful tree that I don't have to water, that the doggies will not think is indoor potty, and it will not shed. I don't have to fight with stringing up lights, and I don't have to worry about killing a tree (even though I know I'm not supporting local tree farms...). I even have the tree on a photo sensor timer. It's programmed to turn on/off based on the amount of light in the room. I haven't tested it yet, but I think it's flexible enough that it can be set to turn on at dusk and turn off 8 hours later instead of when dawn arrives. BGE doesn't need anymore of my money, TYVM.

2. I bought a mantle for our fireplace. It's unfinished, so I have to stain it, but that doesn't bother me. I will be able to hang another garland, Christmas malafetia (knick knacks in Greek) and the best part, stockings. The mantle project will start tonight after DJ goes to sleep. It'll require a couple coats of this all-in-one stain/varnish I have. I bought some really cheap brushes because you can't wash this stuff out of brushes. You just have to throw the brushes out. I learned that the hard way the last time I stained a small shelf I have. Anyway, after it's been stained a few times, Steve will get to mount it to the wall over the fireplace. I so can't wait!!

I also finally found a functional ground spotlight. Last year, the one I bought was totally busted, so I took it back and I couldn't find another one. Was really disappointed because you couldn't see the wreath and the garlands without turning on all of the front lights, and that just wasn't the effect I wanted. This year, I got an awesome spotlight, a photo sensor timer with a remote (so now I can turn it off from inside the house since the outside power outlet isn't switched by anything inside), and a 50 ft outside extension cord. The wreath is properly lit and the focus of the outside decorations is the way I want it.

I didn't put up any lights this year outside. I haven't decided what I want to do in terms of "look". I think that my creativity is partly being stifled by the fact that the outside beds require more work than have already been done to them, and I can't visualize an end product.

We interrupt this Christmas blog to report that DJ literally cruised down the length of the our coffee table by shuffling his arms and stepping sideways with this feet. WAY TO GO DJ!!!

Back to Christmas.

We have been meaning to get a tree for years, but never were motivated enough. This year, DJ motivated us to get the tree to give him something to look at, even though he doesn't understand what it's about. My search for a tree included comparison shopping. I went to Valley View Farms, Watsons, Home Depot, and Target. I couldn't believe the disparity between all the stores. Valley View Farms had the best selection of trees by far but since it's the first place I looked, I figured also the most expensive. Watsons had very expensive and what surprised me to be very ugly trees when they were smaller than 6.5 feet. Target had an ok selection with the best prices, but their 4.5 ft trees were kinda scrawny. It was a clear example of "you get what you pay for". Home Depot didn't have trees less than 6.5 feet tall. That means I went back to Valley View Farms to buy our tree.

I'm really excited about the tree. We knew we wanted a tree less than 6 feet tall because we want to put it on the bay window sill. Unfortunately, the sill is a little short in width, so we'll have to get creative on how to "extend" the sill. Maybe that will be next year's project. For this year, we put it on a small table next to the sill.

DJ has been fascinated with the tree. He immediately reached for it and squished the "needles" in his fingers (another benefit of an artificial tree... no needle injuries!). He stared at the lights and he wanted to touch all the ornaments, naturally. When we went to Valley View Farms on Monday, I think he was too overwhelmed by vast extensiveness of Christmas decor to really process what he was seeing was "stuff to touch"!! Towards the end, I think he started to get his bearings and started to talk to the ornaments he liked. It was really cute.

Ok, this blog has gone on long enough. Merry Christmas everyone!