and just like that? on to christmas

 Tim helped me haul this up from the basement.  It was zipped carefully into a big giant bag last January.   Well, yesterday they mentioned to me that one of Julia's friends had FALLEN onto it during a sleepover.

OMG.

I was so afraid it would be broken, but no. Just the star for the top was, so we threw that away and got another one.   She had some flim flam story, but pretty sure it was not MY friends falling on my Christmas tree. That's on YOU.   As it is, I'm ambivalent about not having a real tree.   But I like to have it up for a good long time, and at some point they feel like a fire hazard, plus the watering it over and over twice a day for weeks, and all that.    Last year we tried this, and it's okay. 

If we use it for three years we will have broken even on the cost and can decide from there in the future.

But do not FALL ON IT.

Jay painstakingly put the lights on this tree. Every year the tree gets a little bigger, and it does not get easier.  He has a long pole with a hook.  This took him hours.

 This is a new guy.  Our niece sent the ad to Jay, "You have to get this!"  So he used his Cabela's points and bought it last week. 

It's good, Santa waterskiing, reindeer driving the boat.

 Little Santa is up on the flat roof.  The sleigh is anchored to a board, and Rudolph is too.  We left the rocks up on the roof, the ones that hold the boards down in case of wind, tuck them in a corner.  Well, the board was up there too, under the rocks.

Jay searched that hellhole of a garage for a good while, looking for Rudolph's board, and finally asked me about it.  He said he decided to stop and think like I would, and I don't think that was a compliment, honestly.

Board found. Santa's good.

Onward. In one more day it will be December.    Love, Val