Preparing for Christmas

Last week Younger Daughter put her foot down and announced, in the face of Don’s and my laziness, that enough was enough and she was setting up the Christmas tree.

This is fairly easy to do because last year we transitioned (gasp!) to a fake tree.

I miss the days when we tromped through the snowy woods to locate the best tree we could find; but we now have the compensating virtue that my husband can breathe with comfort through the month of December.

So Younger Daughter got to work, starting with moving her parrot Lihn’s cage out of the corner where we normally put the tree, and put her in front of the window.

Then we hauled down the tree box and started unpacking it.

I still think artificial trees are kinda funky…

…but there’s no question the results are consistent.

We tested lights before stringing them on.

It only took us an hour or so to get the ornaments on…

…and it only took Lydia a little longer than that to claim the space behind her tree has her “cave.”

Then, on a day Younger Daughter was out of the house, Don and I pulled out all the wrapping supplies, and wrapped presents.

A tree always looks prettier with packages underneath.

Older Daughter will be flying in on Christmas Eve, thanks to the hard-working personnel working for airlines and airports across the country. We’ll have her until just after New Year’s. We know we won’t be able to have our girls with us every year for Christmas, so we’ll count our blessings while we can.