It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Paper chains are being stapled, poinsettias placed, lights unwound, and wooden Nativity figures inched into position. People: it's Christmastime. I can now officially break out the Bing Crosby, the Nat King Cole, the Band Aid, and Paul McCartney's so-bad-it's-good Wonderful Christmastime. Oh yeah.

In our house, the party officially got started yesterday. While E napped in the day, I got the tree out of our cupboard and set it up and ready to decorate. I also got to set up our new tree skirt. And by 'tree skirt' I mean, 'faux sheepskin rug from IKEA with a hole cut in it.' But, it's the look I wanted and at least it hides the hideousness of the base of our artificial tree. Now if only the rest of the tree weren't so brutal.

Don't get me wrong, I grew up with an artificial tree: I think they can look great. Ours is just a bit...sparse. Before it's decorated you can see the metal posts at the inner ends of the branches. Really, to be convincing, an artificial tree ought to have the fake pine needles along the whole length of the branches. But once the whole thing is lit and decorated, I think it passes the test for the most part.

Anyway, last night, once we'd had dinner and the Husband was home, we set to with decking the halls and trimming the tree in earnest. We even managed to follow the good example set by our sister-in-law, Rachel, over at Make a Long Story Short and get the whole event on tape to share! And so, without further ado, here is the whole painstakingly edited and uploaded affair (forgive the blur...I've yet to beat the autofocus into submission):

Surprisingly, Ethan was much more helpful - or at least much less of a hindrance - than I'd expected. He only took one or two ornaments off the tree, and even tried putting a few on! Mostly, though, he just ignored us as we got everything set up. And today has been much the same. Aside from occasionally taking one bauble and my stuffed William the Conqueror ornament off the tree, he's not really fussed about the whole thing.

Next up? Getting started on the Christmas cookies. Now that I'm really looking forward to. After putting it off for far too long, I'll finally make Speculaas. Though, sadly, I don't have the wooden molds for it. I may need to fix that in future years.