decorations take 9 hours? awesome.
12 / 07 / 2009How long should it take to find a Christmas tree when you’re not hauling your ass out into the woods and cutting it down?
Not two hours.
Unless you live in Atlanta. Then? Well, you can only find a decent tree after you’ve searched hundreds of bundled up trees (Why? Atlanta? Why do you ruin trees like this?) at three different places.
And in your driving to said locations, you are *almost* hit by 17.58 cars because wherever they were going was totally more important than the space you were occupying. Assholes.
But, we found a tree! Tim and our Noble Fir at Lowe’s (Yes, Lowe’s…)

And how long does it take to decorate a tree, a fireplace, a railing and a light?
If you guessed NINE HOURS, you’re so right.
It was partially Lexi’s fault. I mean, how do you resist this face + jingle bells?

Mr. Noble all decorated

When Tim sees this post, the first thing he’ll think? WHY didn’t you put up a nighttime picture? Nighttime pictures are so much better.
Well, Mr. Photographer, thing is, I’m not God and I cannot exactly *make* nighttime. It’s totally a sham, I know. But you may be on to something with the whole darkness thing…

(this is from a few years ago…we don’t put presents under the tree in the beginning of December…that’d be too tempting for me. Tim would come home from work to a house full of wrapping paper and I’d be sitting in the middle of it, playing with my new toys all, “YAY! PRESENTS!” And he’d look at me like, It’s December 5th. The hell?)
The Mantle (fireplace…whatever. We probably need to upgrade to “Peace-Joy” cause the stockings for Lexi, Alegre, Gracie and Chloe are all sitting on the coffee table…)

Lexi…still being a major source of distraction.

The stair rail (that only goes up what? 4 steps? Totally not very disabled-friendly. Broken leg? Well, I hope you’ve got awesome balance. Good luck on steps 5 – 14) It sort of resembles a disaster with lots of glitter…Chloe and Gracie are trying to figure out how to pull off the plastic berries without getting caught. Right now they’re being all, “Leave me alone. I’m not doing a-n-y-t-h-i-n-g…”

Tim, Maddie and Lexi (and yes, Maddie is wearing socks…she’s still “recovering” from her massive infection)

The light…that I tried to decorate…but the result kind of looked like a pine tree and the light fixture got into a massive disagreement that the pine tree totally won. A massacre that leaves the light fixture at a 45 degree angle doesn’t really put anyone in the “holiday spirit” so Tim fixed it and they’re getting along, now.

We still have the outside to do…yay?







Fortunately, Vermont is not lacking in the Christmas tree department.
.
Awe!!! Super cute! I seriously love this time of year!
My tree opted for massive attack mode today on the Nugget and me. I heard a snap while innocently minding my own business, making mouth love to a bowl of Strawberry Delight Frosted Mini Wheats, and what do I catch in my peripherals? My Christmas tree, careening toward my head. There will be an entire post divulging every little detail, but be thankful it took you 9 hours to decorate instead of 9 minutes to un-decorate. Piece of shit tree!
i really want to stuff lexi in my backpack and take her home with me now
I don’t think we’re even doing Christmas decorations this year… We have ZERO room in the living room and there is no other room anywhere I would be willing to stick a tree. Plus, one of our kitties is entering a climbing phase… That just doesn’t seem like a good idea to me!
Nice tree! I’m sad to report that we haven’t decorated ours yet. The tree is up, but it’s naked. Maybe today will be the day I can get everyone together to decorate.
It took us 3 days, 6 stores and I don’t even know the total of hours to find a pre-lit one with all white lights that I liked. How sad is that?! At least we don’t have to keep inflicting that on ourselves each year. You know, like you do. Sucks.
Our inside is all decorated but outside isn’t. Every weeked it’s either raining or we’re trying to recover from some cold. Plus, it totally snowed this weekend and I was NOT decorating outside in the snow.
Not happening. Ever.
I am totally contemplating a dognapping. I may take your tree as well. Would you mind?
Great tree! And love Lexi all dressed up. Too cute!
The tree is lovely and well worth the time… the staircase and the chandelier. . . nice! The look on Lexi’s face?
Priceless! Maddie, the kiddies are no pretties, too. Is Tim’s smile after 9 hours of Christmas decorating? If so, he’s DEFINITELY a keeper!
Looks pretty. Makes me a little embarrassed about the artificial tree we need to bring down from the attic. I’ll bet your house smells great.
We were totally going to get a real trea this year but then opted to save the money and use our fake one. We bought it for $30 and this was our 3rd and last Christmas with it. I thought only real trees lost their needles. I had to vacuum for a half hour in the 4 square foot area where I put the tree together when I was done. Your tree and railing look lovely.
Ugh, we still have to do outside, too. Only, it hasn’t stopped raining long enough all week to do it. It will get done though… I SWEAR.
Haha! The tree looks great. My husband is hiding my gifts from me at someone else’s house. I am glad we have so much TRUST in our marriage. LOL
Wow, the night pic is better. I am also not allowed to see or touch the gifts. I have some sort of psychic powers and can always guess.
But broken legs make the stairs or die. Natural selection.
I love the pictures of your fur babies! They look so festive and cute! And the one of the tree you took ain’t bad either
Merry Christmas Jessica!!
Your tree is lovely! I’m totally allergic to real trees. Like I break out in these horrible welts everyplace they touch me. So we have artificial trees every year. Not quite the same…but it only takes like an hour to find them so ha!!
Happy Holidays
♥Spot
Spot: I think being allergic totally qualifies as “Reasons a Fake Tree is Acceptable” – it sucks though, cause they DO smell great.
Peggy: Thank you! The chocolate fur-baby…oi. She’s a handful
mepsipax: I think you might be on to something there with the whole natural selection thing…
Laura: Mine got locked in a closet…when the door slammed shut Tim was all, “DO NOT OPEN THIS. EVER!” I think he should probably put a sign on the door, though…cause I’m forgetful that way…(I think he trusts you in that he trusts you will find your present…so he avoids the potential disaster
)
Casey: If it’s raining where you are anything like it has been raining here all day? I totally believe you.
Amy: REALLY?! They drop needles? I had no idea. A fake tree in this house? It would promptly be burned down and sacrificed to the blasphemy gods…
Merrilymarylee: Well, that was *before* he put up these candles in the windows (fake, not real…like your tree
). But he was still smiling after that, too…and I’m starting to think that fake trees are far more popular than I thought.
Miss T: Yay! Thank you!!
Gaby: If you’d like to babysit Lexi for about a week…she’s yours. Just coordinate with Franzi. I’m not sure if she wants weekends?…
LB: Can I have your snow? We won’t see snow here….probably ever. It’s this insane freak-of-nature that shuts down the entire city…Tim thinks it’s hysterical…coming from Upstate NY and all.
Marianne: Did you decorate?…or is your tree still naked?
Stephanie: You HAVE to decorate! Even if it’s just a house plant…throw a few ornaments on it…or something?
franzi: No back pack required. You can totally borrow her.
Jess: Are you ok?? Wow…that was pretty shitty of the tree…
Kid Icarus: Me too! It’s my favorite
Zsa: Oh…Vermont. Tim says its beautiful there in the fall…though I’ve never been.
The tree looks amazing and so do the pets! I don’t have a tree up, as I refuse to until the 13th December. I’m a 12 days before Christmas kinda girl – not a moment befor – and then I get into the spirit!
Despite everything, we got our tree up and decorated. I even have little merry Christmas hankerchiefs for the dogs to wear (well – like bandanas).
Maddie, Lexi, and the kitties are soooo cute! Daw!
We got ours at Lowe’s too. Really bad selection at the other places ( I won’t name names) and no customer service. We’ve gotten ours at Lowes for the last three years. They never fail. Poor Maddie appears to be on the mend. I feel so sorry for her. I’ll take her and let everyone else have Lexi. I’m clearly a sucker for the underdog.
Okay so I totally laughed out loud at the you + presents and wrapping paper image because I really want to do that some days with all the cool stuff under our tree. I then proceeded to read it to my younger sister in laws who were raised Jehovah’s witness and therefore didn’t really get the whole shaking presents and trying to read through the wrapping paper growing up reference…. But I’m still giggling >)
I love your decorations. And Lexi is sooo adorable! You make me want a dog. I mean, I want a dog anyway, but you make me really, really want a dog.
Also, I LOVE the new site (I know, I’m late. I’ve been a bad, bad bloggy friend recently…)
Beautiful tree!!! You did a great job on decorations! And Lexie is just adorable… I finally got your new site added to the reader! YAY!
Sigh. if only you could “blog” about the smell of a fresh evergreen tree… *sigh* AWWW @ the picture of the jungle puppy.
AND for a second I thought not only did you get your Xmas shopping done, you also got them all wrapped. I think I cursed you for a second by mistake. I am sorry…