This Nut Almost Cracked

 
As is my yearly ritual, I begin by going out to the garage and digging into my Christmas decor.  Yes, I dig in right then and there...gotta get to the good stuff   first.   I am already anticipating the festive sparkle of ribbons and twinkle of  lights throughout my home.  I put a touch of Christmas in each room.

I first find my two 4' potted trees, already pre-lit.  These come pre-planted in decorative urns and are made of two pieces that are as easy as it gets to put together.  Ahhh, I have them up and on the tables at either side of the big French armoire & bookcase.  Now to plug them in and let the decorating begin.  Last year I packed all the ornaments, ribbons, garlands and toppers I use on the trees with each box so I'd have everything for these two trees ready to go.

Wait...must have hot chocolate...it goes so well with Christmas decorating.    Turn on some Christmas music.  Now, the scene is set and I am ready to fill my house with Christmas decor, and then I'll sit back with my second cup of cocoa and enjoy what I've just done.


Huh? 
The first tree I plugged in has only the top half of lights working.   
Let me fiddle around with the lower half of the lights.  I wiggle the string, look at the bulbs, take a few out, replace the fuse.  Still I have half a lit tree.   Argh!

 Too frustrated to deal with tree one I move over to tree two. 
Now just to plug this baby in and...
What in the bleepity blankety bleep bleep?
 This tree is only lit on the bottom half!
Now I'm gettin' MAD. 

I leave the trees and go out to the garage to dig through boxes for something else fun to decorate with.  I pull out a favorite angel.
I then proceed to drop her on the concrete floor.  That was not supposed to happen.

She now looks more demonic than angelic.

 Christmas decorating is really getting on my nerves!  I'm contemplating not even bothering, ok not really, but sometimes I get so frustrated I want to contemplate not doing it!  Half of what I was looking for was up on a shelf I couldn't reach and even if I could reach it,  it was under a bigger box I couldn't lift. 

I go inside ready to hang it up for the night...but I'm too restless to do nothing.  So, back to the garage.  Ahh, the kids nutcracker collection!  These are fun to decorate with and look great atop the bookcase and armoire.  There are lots of nutcrackers in the collection as Grandma Judy usually gives a few to the kids each year and Ashton also collects them.  
Ashton and Jonah help me unpack them.  Um, some are in dire need of surgical repair.  Out comes the glue and on goes a few noses, hats and boots.   Now that most of them are repaired (we're missing a few body parts still)  I arrange them on the armoire with our two half lit trees on either side.  

 

Some of my favorite nutcrackers are the skier and snowboarder.  Shawn, the kids and I loved skiing every weekend the slopes were open when we lived in Colorado.

Ok, it's beginning to come together and I'm not so frustrated any longer.  

Shawn brought in two fresh strands of lights for the trees and I wound the working string of lights onto each tree.  Hooray, lit trees!  NOW I can decorate them.

First comes the toppers.  They are Poinsettias made of Capezio shell which have a bit of transparency so I tucked a light inside to let them shine brightly.  

 I seem to use birds in my decor a lot.  I like these little clip on bird ornaments.

Mission, partially accomplished.  At least this part of my decor is finished! Now I feel all better and I'm ready to tackle some more decorating tomorrow.

Peace out

I'm currently having two giveaways:  Made from Scratch Focaccia Bread HERE & French Pillow Giveaway HERE One ends tomorrow night, so don't forget to enter!

I'm joining in at these parties:


Coastal Charm
Metamorphosis Monday
A Stroll Thru Life
Be Colorful
Red Couch Recipes
Tinsel  & Company
The Girl Creative
Poinsettia Party at Beths
Savvy Southern Style