trim the tree

Trimming the tree has always been one of my favorite parts about Christmas. As I child, I loved the old boxes in which the glass ornaments were lovingly stored. I liked hanging tinsel on the tree until the year the cat puked it up.

I do not ever recall hanging lights on the tree.

No, that is a job saved for adulthood.

Oh the joys of hanging lights on the tree.

Today, I helped Gwen with her Christmas decorations.

First we had to get the boxes off the shelved in the basement. Then she looked through each box (which numbers and size are much less than my own) and determined whether or not there was anything in it that she wanted to use this year.

Then we took everything out of the boxes and carried it upstairs.

It would have been easier to carry the boxes upstairs and then remove things, but I was there to help not tell her how to do things.

I digress. Many minutes later it was discovered that she was missing a couple of key items that she wanted to display.

We went back to the basement and went through boxes until we found them.

Back to the living room. Only a few minutes later she discovered something else was missing.

Back to the basement, through the boxes, and I came up empty-handed. I went back upstairs. This time Gwen came downstairs with me. Immediately she found what she was looking for (I had actually found it but didn't realize that box was the one I was looking for, funny how that happens when you don't know what color/size the box is).

Over Thanksgiving, Bill and I discussed when our Christmas decorations will be hung. It has to be after this weekend because of Casey's socks.

This was my trunk. Remember, the youth went shopping and all of those bags are already in the storage closet.

These bags were the result of the shopping trip I took with Bill and then various stops I made on several separate occasions.

Back to decorating, it was fun to help Gwen. She had a few stories of where her special pieces came from. That is the part I enjoy most, thinking back to where those special ornaments came from; I guess hanging the lights is just part of it.