Tree by Maggie

The tree is up and decorated. There was great debate between the Douglas Fir and the Noble Fir. I really like the fullness of the Douglas and Steve really like to be able to see the ornaments on the Noble. I let him choose and he went Douglas for me. Really, though, no matter what kind of tree we choose, I am always pleased once it's decorated.

It's generally a rather drawn out process taking perhaps three days to complete. The process includes   getting the tree, letting it sit in its stand drinking water for a day,  bringing it upstairs, cleaning up the trail of needles, putting on the lights, waiting for us to be together to put on the ornaments. We were going to decorate it Sunday night, but Tim didn't get home from work until almost 10PM.  So it waited another day. It was done last night and now I have to put the empty decoration boxes back downstairs. Hopefully that won't take me another day.

Putting on the ornaments and the other decorations is fun. Each ornament brings some memory or story or remembrance. We have an abundance of fishing ornaments that have been given to Steve over the years, several from the kids early years, a Santa wearing a Giants shirts and this year we received a nutcracker wearing a Giants uniform, which goes perfectly with our extensive nutcracker collection.

 Tim was intrigued by an ornament that said "to Sally from Joey" and wondered who "Joey" was. He thought he had stumbled on a great story, and  seemed disappointed when I said SHE was my secretary in about 1992.

Maggie helps too. Tim makes her hold the ornament or decoration and then point to where she wants it. It's a S L O W process but he is very patient with her. He makes he laugh which only slows things down further but certainly makes it more entertaining. After every successful placement he would say "tree by Maggie" and she loved it.

Here's a minute or so of their interaction. This had already been going on for several minutes before I turned on the camera. She wasn't being very cooperative making him do all the work, but he would have none of it.

May all your decorating be as fun!