Relief

I feel a huge amount of relief that the Christmas tree is finally up. And it hasn't fallen over. And Paul's "gasket in a tube" fixed the leak (so far, fingers crossed). It's holding water and hasn't turned brown!

I don't know why I feel so relieved. I guess 4 days into December seemed too late to me - like the season couldn't begin until the house reflected Christmas. I'm not sure if that really explains it. If it were just me and Paul here, I wouldn't mind so much. I guess I just want things to be festive and memorable for Abbie.

I wouldn't let Abbie go to bed until we finished decorating then I insisted that we put all the boxes away so we could appreciate our efforts without all the mess.

We did a new color theme this year and didn't put every ornament we own on the tree. I might need to buy a few more of the new ornaments to add more oomph. Paul does a lot of the heavy work like hauling the tree in and sawing the trunk and getting the tree stand on. I always put the lights on b/c that frustrates him. But if any bulbs are burnt out, he usually fixes that while I unstring them. We make a good team. He says he likes to sit back and watch Abbie and me do the decorating. Even though I didn't want to use all of our ornaments this year, I insisted that we put Darth Vader on the tree. It just wouldn't be Christmas if we didn't hear "Luke, I am your father" every time we flick the switch and turn on the lights on the tree. Abbie insisted that we put on an ornament that has Watson's picture on it.

I have missed having a real tree. I had almost forgotten what it was like. I love the smell and the soft feel of the needles. I love that the lights blend in better then they do on a fake tree.

Maybe this weekend we can make our annual Christmas cake. We have to give it time to "cure." And now I can start thinking about baking some treats.

I have no idea what we're getting Abbie for Christmas. Of all things, she wants a flying squirrel, a real one. But I'm not feeling stressed about baking or shopping. Now, I'm looking forward to Christmas parties and sitting in the living room enjoying the tree and sighing with relief.