It's beginning to look like Christmas at Chez Humbug

Hello everyone!

Today we made great progress getting into a Christmas mood. We put John Denver and the Muppet's Christmas CD on the stereo and David and I put up the Christmas tree this evening. He actually hung a good number of ornaments on it too! Usually, he just hangs the lights and the garland and then he leaves to do somenthing else. He's never been one to help decorate, I think it's cause he felt that I never approved or appreciated what he did. I used to be very Martha Stewart about my decorating and there have been years where putting up the tree was a very sore subject between us. We used to get HUGH trees too, we'd go tramping around some tree farm and cut one down. Then it would be tied to the car or stuffed in the bed of the truck for the ride home and then the poor thing would be left out on the front porch for days until we HAD to bring it in the house. And that meant a mess, pine needles and dirt tracked through the foyer into the living room. The tree usually was between 9-12 feet tall, we have a cathedral ceiling in the living room and it was a chore to it straight in the tree stand. By that time, the poor guy had enough and wanted to be left alone. Of course, I would insist that he do the lights and the garland so let's just say we didn't always have a Hallmark moment.

But three years ago, after fighting with a tree that was almost 14 foot tall and as wide as the room, I decided NO MORE. Neither Mike or Dave were interested in shlepping out to cut a tree down, let alone decorate it. So the following Christmas, I ordered a lovely 7.5 foot artic spruce tree from Tree Classics. It came in a box that looked like a coffin. Mike was appalled that we were bringing a fake tree into the house but I reminded him that he was of driving age and that meant that he could be the tree chauffer that year. He quickly decided that artificial wasn't all that bad.

I do have many, many ornaments. So many they can not all go on the fake tree. But all of my ornaments have stories to tell and I make sure that those that mean the most to my family are hung on it. I have Hallmark ornaments that are dated as far back as 1975 when the DH and I first began to date. Each year, I bought a new dated ornament. Our horses have rocking horse ornaments dated with the year that they came into our family. Every pet we've owned in the last 28 years have an ornament too. Then there's Mike's gradeschool ornaments, the one's that survived anyway. There's my cross stitch ornaments that I've received in exchanges and painted ornaments that I've done over the years. We have handmade beaded ornaments from Dave's auntie and I have ornaments from my parent's tree that hung on their tree 50 years ago. This year, I got out all the shiney bright ornaments, I remember them on our tree when I was a little girl. And then there are my snowmen, many, many frosty fellows.

I am sorry that I waxed nostalgic about my tree. It's got to be boring reading about it but at least now I feel like it's Christmas. Tomorrow, if the light is good (meaning if we get some sun) I'll take a picture and post it so you can see what I am going on about.

I did some stitching tonight, just a little on the Cadet's airforce piece. I only have the letter *E* to stitch and then the borders. After that I just have to sew on the charms and viola! A finish. All that will be left to do is frame it and maybe if I am lucky the frame will show up by the weekend so I can mount it before Christmas.

So, thanks for putting up with my Christmas tree story. I hope you are having a good week and I am SO glad you stopped by.