it's up!

enough blather about mediocre beer joints with happy hour wings though. the xmas tree is up. it only took about a half hour to get the tree assembled...and two hours for the ornamentation.

up until 2001, lois had tree decorating parties. and some of these gatherings would be huge...like 100 people in her little bungalow! where did she put them? i have NO idea.

however, she hasn't had the urge to have one the last couple years - too much work. sure, it's nice to have all yer friends over...if only once a year...but it's still time and money. so, this year it was just her and me. you never realize how long it takes to pull out all the stuff and put it up until you are stuck doing it yerself. ah well, maybe i'm the only one who says 'stuck' though; she loves doing it all by herself. i think it gives her time to reminisce about who gave her a certain ornament or when she bought it.

when i was a kid, my sister (Susie) and I put up the tree for about six or seven years. being the two youngest, we were the only ones left in the house and it was up to us if there was gonna be a tree or not.

it was cool though. we rarely had a real tree - the last one i remember was when i was 4 - or even a good artificial pine...no, we had the super retro (well, that's what'd it be now) aluminum xmas tree! yep, this tree was complete with two types of branches (straight or curly aluminum needles) and a loud motorized stand decorated with gold glitter that was supposed to resemble snow. SO 60's!

i miss decorating that tree though. we had some really neat bells and unique glass ornaments. sure, they weren't as classy as some of the great ornaments that Lois has, but they had a uniqueness and individuality all their own. you know, maybe it's the nostalgia. perhaps now i could look at all the stuff and say, "That's not special." they are though. for it was that aluminum tree that typifies my image of xmas and the holiday season. it didn't matter if there was snow outside or not...all i had to do was look at that tree and get into the spirit.

my parents no longer put up the aluminum tree. there's still plenty of xmas spirit though. our mom bought a fully decorated 3' tree at Target in November 1986...put it up...and never took it down. yep, that tree has been up for 17 years. it just gets vacuumed/dusted and moved from one room to another. my mom is holiday cheer 24/7. i wonder if there's a Guinness Book entry for longest xmas tree display...