Well she comes by it honest ;)

She's nagging now when am I mailing some packages that thru circumstances beyond our control didn't get delivered when we thought they would...I'm thinking I'll either mail them tomorrow or hide the suckers LOL

LOL Me too!!! From the heart. :)

Oh man, I hear ya about hiding those suckers....

I'm tossing my tree at this moment! Just FYI.....

With me, trimming the tree in the first place is a thing I like to do very close to Christmas. And so one of the most beautiful things that will be in my home all year will still be brand new on Boxing Day.

So it stays to grace my place till mid-January every year. And free curbside carcas pickup stops after the 15th, I think.



I think about getting a fake tree every year, but never do. Sheesh, I've found a few stray needles just now from last year ... or perhaps from some earlier archeological era of Christmas. And I hate participating in the genocidal slaughter of the young pinelings.

But a real tree has a real spirit. And it wouldn't be one of the most beautiful things in my home all year without that.



.

Yep, when we were putting up this years tree I found needles from trees from years gone past....

I am also torn about a fake tree. We had one most of the years growing up. It always made me sad. But, I also am sad about the dead tree sitting in my living room. My son didn't get it, I guess, and asked if we could put it outside and try and bring it back to life. I had to esplain' to him it no longer had any roots. :(

But a fake tree??? Yikes!

Well, I did the deed. I figure the Hubster is dealing with a lot of mess at work {leaking ceilings, security issues, blah blah blah} that I would deal with the mess at home. I had to take down a canopy/tarp that the wind was whipping about{worried it would slam into the sliding glass door, yuck full of spiders and dirty water!!}. Took out the tree as clean as I could and now am cleaning up a whole bunch of needles.

Did I mention my vacuum isn't working? :(

The Christmas tree. Such a lovely sentiment. But, when you think about it, it brings up a bit to debate about.

When I was (not much) younger, I'd cry at the sight of trees in a lot on Christmas Eve: trees that didn't get chosen. :( I still get pretty upset -- last Saturday we drove past the lot on our block and I turned to hubby and practically wailed "there's nothing wrong with any of those trees, but they still didn't get picked!"

My allergies, though, were the deciding factor in us going fake. I can visit trees, but I can't have that pine sap around for two weeks or my eyes will nearly swell shut and I'll just sneeze and sneeze and sneeze. I do miss the scent of a real tree. I don't miss the infernal needles. I love pulling our little fake pre-lit tree out of its box, fluffing up its branches, putting the twenty or so ornaments that will fit on it up, and sitting back to enjoy it only a quarter-hour later. And I never have to worry about it being dry!

The tree usually comes down January 2nd here. We figure that after New Year's Day, the holidays are truly over, so no need keeping it up after that. We also have a fake tree, as my apartment complex has banned real trees for fear they may catch fire...but, I love real trees, oh, I do!

But, does anyone here do what Gretchen Wilson did in her "Redneck Woman" song, and keep their Christmas lights up on the front porch all year long? ;)

Ooo! I would! I think the ornaments and lights are the best part of the tree. Oh, I just had a sad moment when I sat here at the computer. I bent down to plug in the lights to the tree....Yep, it isn't here!

But, back to the lights. I have had lights strung about. But not the multi-colored x-mas kind.

Well, not the porch ... but at my ex's good suggestion, I keep a few main strands of custom-colored christmas lights throughout the apartment.

It's pretty all year round, when I turn them on (in one room, they tend to be the main lighting) ... and it sure saves wear and tear on the crown moldings, not having to punch fresh holes in them year after year. They'd be wormswood inside a decade.



Eh, with my age-related time perception, it's Christmas every three months anyway.

My mom is one of those rarities who has a living, potted tree in her back yard and we haul it in every December, decorate it, and schlep it back out again (when she finally allows it sometime close to Valentine's Day).