<p>I’m trying to put the lights on the tree, because I just want to get the thing decorated and done. H, who usually does this, managed to get out of town at the optimum time to miss this. I put on all the lights, but of course the spacing is off and now I have to go back and adjust them all. I’m feeling a lot like Scrooge at the moment. Bah humbug!!! Plus, why am I the only in the house who hangs ornaments?</p>
<p>There – I feel marginally better!</p>
<p>And it will be sooooo lovely when you’re finished and can pull a chair up in front of the tree and sit down and have a hot toddie!</p>
<p>haha. I can totally sympathize. A dragged husband along on Sunday to buy the tree. The Christmas tree buying ordeal is usually a project that I do with my youngest son but he’s a freshman at college this year and won’t be home until this weekend. We bought the tree and he helped me put it in the stand (I wanted to get it in water ASAP). That’s the extent of his in-house Christmas chores. Monday, while both husband and my older son (who is home from college) were out for the day working at our store, I put the the &^*#@! lights on the tree. Now we have a lighted Christmas tree in our living and our 115 lb. dog has to squeeze his huge body in between a recliner and the tree to get to his bed. We’ll wait for our youngest son to get home from college to decorate it. The decorating is always a comedy show. Our “adult” sons transform into toddlers and fight over who gets to put what ornaments onto the tree. It’s pretty funny. </p>
<p>Have a wonderful Christmas.</p>
<p>I am feeling your pain!! Every year I threaten a “Mom Christmas Strike” where I do absolutely NONE of the decorating and leave it to the H and D’s to figure out what to do, but I fear my house would look like Whoville the way the Grinch left it after he took everything!</p>
<p>But I agree with archiemom - on Christmas Eve, after midnight church and the inevitable “some assembly required”, I turn out all the lights and sit on the couch with dog or cat on lap and glass of wine in hand, watch the tree, and listen to music by myself while the others are asleep, I live for it!</p>
<p>My H always does the lights. But I secretly hate the way he does it, because he seems to think the light cord is a decorative garland meant to be draped over the branches :). So I’m trying to hijack that process without hurting his feelings.</p>
<p>I hang the ornaments and do the decorating (minimal–we have a small house), but I love it. The ornaments are like old friends, and many bring back memories. Sometimes our son helps with the tree decorating, and last year his girlfriend joined in, which I think shamed him into helping because he seemed like such a Sensitive Guy.</p>
<p>This year I have a huge armload of holly from a friend who lives in the country. It’s going everywhere. I love it.</p>
<p>Okay – taking a break. I had to get away from the tangle of lights. I’m feeling like I landed in the Twilight Zone, and the lights are alive …</p>
<p>My husband used to work at Macy’s trim a tree department when he was young. He said lights should be wrapped closer to the center of the tree to give it the best affect and you could not have enough lights. He leaves outside branches for ornaments and garlands.</p>
<p>In our house it is my husband and younger daughter’s job to put up the tree and their job to take it down too. My friend pays someone to put up all the lights then deliver it to her.</p>
<p>Done!!! H will come home tonight and have something to say, I’m sure, but too bad! What I’d really like is for the live trees to come with lights already on – or a “net” of lights like you put on the shrubs – or even new lights, and more of them. Part of the problem is we’ve been using the same lights for 25 years; some have lost their branch clips, a few sockets don’t work, AND since we moved we have higher ceilings, and therefore a taller tree – but the same # of lights.</p>
<p>Okay, rant over. I’m moving on to the ornaments. That part isn’t as frustrating!</p>
<p>CBBlinker, I do my part for the US economy, I buy my lights new and cheap at walmart, and then rip the lights off out in the yard after we take down the tree. I keep threatening to throw the tree away pights and all, but if we do that we can’t send the tree to the city recycling.</p>
<p>^^ I agree, oldfort! Maybe I should send my H to Macy’s for training.</p>