O Christmas Tree

There are many ways to approach the Christmas season and for alot of years mine was a wait to the last minute kind of approach because well it was always a little too early to think about that. Well, having a child changed that for me, especially now that he is old enough to tell Mummy what to do!  

This year the outside lights were put up before it got too cold and turned on after the first Christmas outing - parade #1. The Christmas tree was out of the box in late November. The lights were added  but we opted not to decorate it until Dec 2, because you have to be in the right frame of mind, with a bottle of bubbly close by to do that job (well I do!).

Every year we try to pick a different look for the tree and for many years it's been a very classy look, we have had the candy cane tree - only red & white and all kinds of candy canes; the frosty tree - all white and glass and I think we had an Irish tree one year green & gold! This year we opted for something a little more colourful, because apparently white lights are boring. We still have white lights but decided that to get on the tree this year, a decoration has to be colourful, so no glass or white or silver.

No problem as we have lots of decorations gathered over the years that are colourful. And each one of them has a story, like the yellow taxi cab from NYC; the green & gold balls from the Trim the Tree party I had back in 2000 - thank you Patricia; the mice that Jonathan bought many years ago; the candy canes we bought in NYC on our first trip there (2001?); the Stig - Dylan & I got snow globes with our names on them but I guess Ross couldn't find a Jonathan globe!; the Waterford heirlooms from Alison; the giant Waterford balls from Lori; the NS Crystal from Carla (2006) the Dylan Santas - one from my Mum and one from 'Mad Auntie Sandie'; the Grandma Angel that sits close to the top of the tree and many more.

Every year I think I have done an awesome job on the tree, maybe because the *bubbles* are affecting me by then and Jonathan always says it's the best ever. Whether it is or not, this year the best part was telling DJ all about the decorations and where they came from and the people that gave them to us - people that we hold close to our hearts even though we may not see them as often as we would like . . . . that's the Spirit of Christmas.  And that's worth starting the celebrations early!