A Tree Grows In The Den

It's beginning to feel like Christmas.

Last weekend I put up the outside lights to a rousing parody rendition of Tangled Lights sung to the tune of Jingle Bells.
....This weekend, I planted a tree in the den. More succinctly and sans the metaphor, I put up the Christmas tree.
....I will not pretend that it was a laborious task. Indeed, it takes longer to take the tree out of the box than it takes to actually set it up and decorate it. You see, it's a seven-foot fiber-optic tree. I just mount it on the base, plug it in and flip a switch. Voila! It's a light show nonpareil.
....Although it isn't necessary, we do drape some white strings of beads, hang some plastic icicles, and finish the trimming with two or three boxes of candy canes on the branches.

I can now sit back in my Lazy Boy, mesmerized by the ever-changing lighted branches. It is only then that I can even begin to think about the next phase of the Christmas experience - the shopping. I have only nine days to divvy up those days between thinking about shopping and actually shopping.

Meanwhile, the indoor decorating wasn't finished. The plastic candle lights and candelabras have to be put in the windows.The Christmas cards we've received so far, including yours Jules, have to be displayed.

I think I just might have found the perfect place to hang the mistletoe! Merry Christmas! Ho! Ho!

The only thing missing thus far is the snow. We had a slight dusting about two weeks ago, but it was gone without a trace two hours later. So far the month of December has had temperatures in the 40s and 50s.

Last year at this time, a look out of our windows revealed a scene similar, but not as rustic, to that in the picture at the right. Alas, by Christmas it had melted. Although I live only seven miles north of Boston, I cannot remember the last time we've had a white Christmas.

....Perchance I am preoccupied pondering the ponderous prospects of procuring presents, perhaps one precocious person can pontificate or propose precisely why people present a partridge in a pear tree as a present. (Excuse the alliteration.)
I was just wondering... a Danny Partridge in a pear tree? No, thanks.

I wonder what am I going tell Sandy Claus what to bring me this year when I'm sitting on her lap, or vice versa?

Yes, now that the decorating is completed, I have a lot to think about over the next nine days. Hopefully, I won't spend too much time on the thinking part and save some for the shopping. (Well, as soon as Sandy Claus breaks free of my grip and gets off my lap!) It's hard to let go of traditions.

No.834