Decked The Halls

This evening we finished up with our holiday decorating around the house. We put up my mom's super fake fir with the white lights already installed for "easy" decorating. I think "easy" is a little white Christmas lie brought to you by plastic tree makers. It is so much easier to throw a real tree into a stand with some water than it was putting this plastic tree together. I do think the fake tree looks a lot prettier and by prettier I mean more evenly covered with branches, no spaces or holes that need to be covered or rotated to the back by the wall.

I really do like the experience and childhood memories of having a real Charlie Brown, unique tree in my living room with all it's imperfections. The experience of going up to the Sierra Nevada's with the whole family and hiking all day with a thermos of cocoa and hot turkey soup to find the most perfect imperfect evergreen we could find, cut it down with our rusty hand saw, drag it to the car and realize that we have no idea if it will fit into the car, shove it in the car oh-so-gently without breaking a single branch, get it home and set it in the garage for at least a week in a bucket of water until we actually have time to get it set up in the living room, finally get it set up, cover it in strings of lights that may or may not light up, rotate the tree so the bare spot is toward the back and place strategically all the ornaments we have. Then it's 3, 2, 1, Oh Tennenbaum!

After all was said and done tonight, the decorating was finished with only one broken glass ornament. Lucy, my mom and I had a wonderful evening trimming our beautiful fake fir. We listened to Christmas music on the radio and Lucy helped trim her very first tree (last year we didn't have one, Bah Humbug) and topped the tree herself with a star. Whether we have a fake fir or a true timber was really beside the point of this evening. We three ladies created a memory together that will last a lifetime.

Lucy helps place the red beaded garland on the tree. What a good helper.

Our new found "two finger" trick works with everything fragile and in grocery stores. She uses two fingers when she wants to touch something. This allows her free reign, most of the time, to touch anything without my fear of the item breaking unless, of course, she is using her two fingers in a stabbing, jabbing, jousting motion just to knock the item over, then the trick is deemed useless.

This photo turned out blurry but it really shows her true character. I had her stand on the coffee table so I could get most of the tree in the picture. She says cheese so cheesily!

Last but not least is a little video filled with Lucy's own holiday cheer. She sings, she screams and she owns it!