Almost a week ago, we finally got our Christmas tree... but so far it was undressed. I was away on tour, and I only just came back recently... and the girls were waiting for me to get back so that we could all do it together! It's a bit of a family sort of event, so I was really quite happy that they waited... even though it is only now a couple of days before Christmas!
The first thing that needed to be done was to find all the actual Christmas stuff.... you know, the stuff that you bring out once a year, then stash into a box in the back of the attic or somewhere equally difficult to get to until that moment when you wonder where the hell you had put it! This year wasn't quite so difficult, as we were doing a big tidy up of the attic earlier... and we made sure to put out the Christmas decoration boxes well in advance. In fact, I think they have been sitting in our bedroom for the last month!
The next step after actually finding the boxes is to empty out the entire contents onto the floor... knowing full well, that the tree doesn't have enough structural integrity to possibly hold ALL of the decorations. So, that means we have to do some careful picking and choosing of what can go on the tree this year! Well... mostly it is the kids choosing and my wife doing a final vetting and veto.
We aren't a tinsel family... too messy, and it doesn't really leave much room for nice decorations either! Plus, finding all those shiny little bits everywhere... bleah! So, we start with the lights... this is only slightly less annoying to put on than tinsel... it gets caught in everything and tangled... but it definitely is something that must go on first!
Yay, the lights work! Probably we should have tested them BEFORE we put them on the tree.. but this time, luck was on our side and it turned out fine... That's one up on Murphy's Law!... yes yes, I know I'm tempting fate and will regret it...
Well... this was my punishment... hanging up the window lights. Actually, we had bought these recently for the tree, but then found out that they were not a string of lights but more a string with little trails of drop lights, all white! Oddly enough, it was cunningly described as exactly that on the box...
So, untangling them... is much more of a pain in the arse than a single strand of lights... it's a great demonstration of entropy... maximal disorder... and shaking them doesn't tend to result in greater order!
By the way, that isn't a long table... it is a Clavichord... an old style of instrument... very intimate and soft!
The good old Blu-Tack.... every Christmas and party event, this is the best way to temporarily hang up lights and streamers... of course, it isn't that strong... but it sure beats drilling holes in everything! I made sure to stick them at intervals of every two nodes so that they didn't have to bear too much weight... they only need to last a week or so, but it's best to not stress the goop!
Tada! Everything is stuck and none of them fell! More importantly, I didn't fall on the Clavichord... although there was a moment...
Whilst I was doing that, the girls managed to finish dressing up the tree... a mix of bought decorations, and unique ones and some handmade ones from the girls. It is pretty packed even though we left out about half of the ornaments that we do have! See what I mean about not having room for tinsel?
This is one of the ornaments that is quite special for me... it is a little one made by my grandmother before she passed away. She was quite good with crafts, and had made these little balls (and other things...) from folded straws! There aren't many of them left, as she was selling them to earn a bit of money in retirement... but we still have a couple. Unfortunately, none of the large and intricate ones...
Tada! The lights all work, and the decorations and tree look great... I could probably tidy up the pianos though... that's all my sheet music....
Upgoats by ryivhnn
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