Tricked Out Tree

[judifilksign]

 The holiday tree is up, just in time.  My children are relieved.  No tree = no presents, for presents must go under a tree, you know.  The tree is in a new place this year, at the far end of the library / "formal" living room.  I can watch it blink as I type.  This seems to excite the children.  The window it is in front of means that maybe, we can see it from the street, if you can see through the wall of trees just right.

I need to go looking for new Christmas tree lights on sale this season.  The white lights are just one string, and the tree looks anemic with just those.  One set of colored lights barely goes around the tree top.  The other set of colored lights blinks.  This drives me blinking crazy.  Thus the desire for new lights.

I got out garlands I got more than ten years ago, now that all of my children are old enough not to shred them.  (I'll risk the cats.)  They are spiral woven straw, bought at a quilt show to which I went with my friend Valerie, while she was working on her dissertation.  The deep red and pale yellow spirals looping around the tree give it a more finished look.  The kids were excited at the "new" decorations.

Sparkle just about vibrated with joy as Dino and Irish sorted out tree branches, and I stuck them in, and put on lights.  Then, she dove in, first to put up an ornament she'd made at school, a snowflake.  When we got the family ornaments out, I was amazed at how each child knew whose ornaments were who's.  

"Oh, here, Dino.  This snowman is yours," says Irish.  

"I saved the penguin bell for you to put up, because I knew you love it," says Dino.

"Here's your squirrel ornament, Sparkle."

"Mom always puts up the bunny."


The Avatar McDonald's ornaments still glow blue when you stomp about, so they adorn the tree.  I can see the batteries through the plastic back, which screw on.  I think I might invest in the batteries.  These blue dudes add G33K cred to our tree, y'know.  Other folks have Star Wars tie fighters and the Enterprise.  We have blue dudes that glow when you move.

There is a ring of apples around the center, right at Sparkle height.


Bells are all around the bottom of the tree, to give us warning when the cats try to climb it.  The kittehs are lurking on the nearby cat tree, watching the lights blink and having wild tails. 

This year, the boys noticed that we have a straw starburst at the top of the tree, a woven angel just below, and a Star of David out of straw, too.  They made the connection of Dad's heritage and mine blending on the tree, and liked it.

"So Dad has two ornaments," said Irish.  The other one?  The Grinch...


Stockings are hung on the bookshelves this year.  Irish's blue one disappeared this year, so he has a traditional red Santa stocking instead.  He's a bit disappointed at not having "his" stocking.  I'll look for it, but I don't think it will turn up before Santa does.  
My daddy's cast iron Santa nutcracker is on our mantel. He's old-fashioned creepy-looking. Sparkle thought he'd spit up coal.
 
 It's funny how we've made family traditions, and I didn't realize it until hearing it through the perspective of my kids.

Comments

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

:-) Cool.

non-matching blinking lights

[msminlr.livejournal.com]

That bugs me also. A few years back I found an extension-cord multiplug gizmo with a control knob on it that blinks all the strings plugged into one socket together. Unfortunately, the three sockets are not synchronized.

"Dino and Irish sorted out tree branches"

[maverick-weirdo.livejournal.com]

I remember doing that on our tree when I was a kid. The wire at the end where it was stuck into the tree was color coded with paint, yellow, red, blue, or white. Of course the color faded over the years so it was tough to tell the yellow ends from the white ends, but since they were the longest and shortest branches (respectivly) then we could tell them apart that way.

[thnidu.livejournal.com]

Oooohh. Pic, maybe?

[thnidu.livejournal.com]

Would you be less uncomfortable with lights that blink but not in unison? I'm pretty sure I've seen such strings. More expensive, of course, but I have no idea how much.