In years past, it’s always been the tradition at our house to put up our Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving.  This year though we were slightly behind the eight ball and waited three additional days to deck our halls.  I blame the delay on still being under the effects of the tryptophan from the all the turkey we ate Thanksgiving day – we were just too exhausted to drag it all out!

Every year when we decorate the tree I like to put on holiday music, make some hot chocolate, have a roaring fire in the fireplace, and put a Christmas show on TV to create a festive mood.  But this year it was a little hard to be motivated and get in the holiday spirit when it was a balmy 71 degrees outside.  Our windows were open, my kids were in shorts and it all reminded me of decorating our tree when we lived in Florida many years back.

For our tree trimming event, I had visions of my family gathering together all eager to participate in the fun.  I recently watched one of those “Hallmark Hall of Fame” movies on TV and they ran one of those sentimental commercials where a family comes together to decorate their tree.  Everyone went around the room telling stories of what each of their ornaments meant to them.  I hoped our family evening would go the same.

Let’s just say, however, that things went somewhat different.    

First I had to “remind” my husband several times to get the decorations down from the attic.  Then trying to coral my kids to help proved the next challenge. 

My 10-year-old son asked, “Do we have to put up all of the decorations?”  All while him and my 9-year-old daughter argued over who was going to hang which ornaments.    

I tried to grab my oldest son to join in the fun before he had to head back to college from his Thanksgiving break.  But he quickly informed me (as he was walking out the door) that he was off to his girlfriends and would “just catch us when he got back.”

When it was all done and decorated though, I have to admit it looked great.  We turned off all the lights and sat on the couch admiring our work. 

The biggest thing I noticed this year is that it may be time to invest in some new decorations.  Most of the stuff we have I believe we bought just before my oldest son was born so that makes it at least 19 years old.  After we put up the tree I think we had more needles on the floor than left on the tree! 

Later in the evening I walked past our fireplace and noticed that my daughter had switched the stockings around that normally line up in order of age from oldest to youngest.  When I asked her why she did that she said, “Because I wanted my stocking next to yours mom.”  Warm weather aside, it was beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!