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@#$%! Sweary Christmas 2020 !%$#@
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@#$%! Sweary Christmas 2020 !%$#@  My family sent me this pic last week. It’s from my niece. It’s one of her neighbors’ decorations. I think it was the outsides that matched my insides last week. We were off to such a good start too. We got our8 boxes of decorations out of storage, and the tree up the very day after Thanksgiving. I am not a Black Friday shopper. Not even online. I did that once…nevermore! Nevermore! However, this was a record for us. It was the first year we ever had the tree up and décor sprouting around the house the very next day after Turkey day; I mean before one could say I’m stuffed on stuffing, we had that sucker up and ready to go, and the stockings were [ahem] well hung with the utmost care.  Except...two whole strands of lights on our pre-lit tree wouldn’t light. No problem. We’ll just get replacement bulbs for them. We did, but they didn’t, They wouldn’t light. At all. Huge dark spots in the middle of the tree, it looked naked but not in a good way. Now, we could have simply bought new strands and just added them to the tree. We could have…but, we both agreed it would look, well, messy and weird. No problem, he says. We’ll just remove the pre-lit ones and get some more new ones. Have you ever removed lights from a pre-lit tree? Any idea how many lights are on a pre-lit tree? It’s a lot like the 1000 Faces pattern I’ve been finding lately when thrifting vintage Kutani china. They have a thing for the number 1000. There is a belief that if you create 1000 paper origami cranes within a year’s time; at the end of a year, not only would it grant you health and healing, but the gods would grant you your wish. Yeah definitely a thing for 1000. Every light has a clip of some sort. Those clips are green, The very same green as the pre-lit burned out tree. And just like the eternity symbol there is no beginning, there is no end. Like the journey of a thousand miles, one just must begin. So we did. The hubs took the taller parts of the tree; however, I had the very top because it was easily removed and I could sit down to work on it, slowly…very slowly, and being of short stature, I had the bottom section. The clips blended in so well, I couldn’t see them. It all had to be done by Braille; feeling my way on a branch with eight or so clips on it. Sometimes my hands were enough to remove the clips; other times we had to result to wire snips. As we worked over the next few days, our tree devolved into a paltry Christmas bush with the lights looking much like the picture above. My language devolved even more so.  Each time I had to work on it, I would try to get into a meditative state, I’d think of it as a Zen garden, and I was just raking rock. Enlightenment would come soon. Instead, I would walk away from the heap after 20 minutes or so, swearing and wondering why do we go to all this trouble anyway? I noticed we were almost halfway through December with our living room still looking a disaster. And I could never find the end of a strand until the very end. Did you know they will splice three strands together at times? No beginning. No end. Only a very long effing middle that trailed off three ways! Isn’t that a fire hazard? It took taking the tree down to its stand before we were ready to build it back up. The Holiday pilot light had just about gone out on the inside of me. I didn’t care about decorating for the holiday. My fingers had lost all their prints from blindly reaching into branches, twisting and pulling on clips prying them loose with whatever means possible. The floor was covered in clips and fake needles. It was my 1000 origami crane project, I wanted to see it through. It took the better part of two weeks t.o finally see it finished. But we did it. Tree is up. Lights are on. Its decorated with my favorite vintage ornaments. And It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas!  ~~~" Someone I loved once gave me a box full of darkness. It took me years to understand that this too, was a gift." --Mary Oliver~~~ |
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Hummm, perhaps ONE of the reasons I've resisted the (great) pressure to go the artificial and pre-light route. I still get a live tree. It was purchased a week ago, put in a bucket of water outside, just moved in to the house yesterday, and currently standing in the stand and "falling out" awaiting decoration. The outdoor lights - well around here you do that when the chance comes weather/wind-wise. Typically that might be Black Friday, though this week with being newly retired I got a bit of jump on it. Perhaps due to the dismal year, they've been lighted earlier than normal too. CONGRATS on "beating" that tree!! He and She Volume 18 The Novice Domme Z is for Zipper, on HNW Round 5 of You Know You Like A Game for the Blogging Community [post 3312759] My Private Blog - Tell Me ALL Your Secrets
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Seems familiar
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Very festive!
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Merry Sweary Christmas, y'all! Hey, I may not have fingerprints, but at least I can still type! lol ~~~" Someone I loved once gave me a box full of darkness. It took me years to understand that this too, was a gift." --Mary Oliver~~~
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Your tree looks a lot better than mine. My niece told me I ought to get a new Christmas tree. I said I will but I didn't tell her which year  
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...tree looks amazing... takes patience to deal with those things... kudos....
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12/24/2020 8:45 pm |
I was working at this photo shop before Christmas last year, and was tasked with stringing lights on a 8' diameter artificial wreath to be displayed on the front of the store. Dozens of strands needed to be woven thru the filthiest mess of a wreath you ever did see.. I got it done in two days.
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12/24/2020 8:47 pm |
Your tree looks great! ours is pretty darn modest. If it wasn't for the grandkids, I wouldn't bother any more.
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