Stringing up the lights

Today Christmas officially began in our household. We made our annual pilgrimage to Home Depot to pick out a Christmas tree, but their trees were looking a little peaked this year. There was another lot a half a mile away that was sponsored by Chubby and Tubby. Chubby and Tubby was a discount store in the Seattle area opened in the 1940's, and they sold relatively inexpensive Christmas trees each season. The last store closed a few years ago, but they are sponsoring three tree lots this year staffed by some former employees. There were a few Charlie Brown trees at a discount, but their regular trees weren't so cheap this year. We splurged on a Grand Fir and its a beaut.

We threw in a couple of our favorite Christmas CDs and started digging out our decorations. One of the best parts of decorating the tree is going through all the ornaments each year. Some we have bought together as a couple, but many are from our youth. I've inherited ornaments that used to decorate my family tree, and there are handmade ornaments made by my Mom and Grandmother. Each has a little memory attached to it.

One thing missing from our tree is candy canes. We always had them on our family tree growing up, and I can remember sneaking a few off the tree in the weeks leading up to Christmas. I'd grab them off the back of the tree where I though no one would notice. I know I can just buy a big ol' box of them now, but it would be more fun to sneak one off the tree each day.