I decided to follow the same pattern as I had last year. I got the tree set up and the lights put on day one of decorating. That really wiped me out! First I had to anchor the tree to the wall with fishing line so it would not get knocked down. Then the reaching and pulling and twisting those lights really tired me out and my back was hurting. I knew that was it for day one, and the tree looked really pretty with just lights on it. One of these days I was going to have to get a pre-lit Christmas tree, they are so much less hassle!
The next morning I started unpacking the totes. It is kind of like Christmas morning just unpacking the decorations. I always seem to forget all the cute stuff I have until I unpack it. I try to sort everything into piles and then decide what will be going where. It took a few hours to sort and get everything put out, the only thing left was to decorate the tree. I use a red and green velvet bow on top of my tree and I like to drape the long tails of the bow through the branches. Then I start putting on the ornaments, the smaller and more delicate ones at the top of the tree and the larger plastic ones on the bottom. I would avoid plastic ornaments but I know my cat will be knocking those off and I don't want anything that will hurt him.
Finally I was finished! Everything looked so festive, it makes me feel all warm inside just looking around. My cats are happy too, they come running out and lay under the tree like a couple of furry presents. Now I can rest.
December always seems to go so fast. I remember being a kid and Christmas could not come fast enough, now that I am an adult, I wish it would last longer. Everyone seems a little nicer this time of the year, except if you are out shopping! I like to do my shopping online to avoid that! This year most of my gifts were handmade considering the fact that I was still unemployed.
Another reason I love Christmas is the cooking and baking. I was cooking some delicious cool weather foods that are so comforting. It is so hard to stay on a diet at this time of year. I also did some baking, I used to make my Grandmother's butter cookies, but they are too much work for me now. They require making the dough and letting it chill, then having to roll out the dough and then frost them afterwards. I did not have the energy for them, but I found a recipe for drop butter cookies. All you do is make the dough and chill it then grab a spoonfull of dough and drop it on the baking sheet, add sprinkles or colored sugar and bake. They taste almost as good as my Grandmother's recipe with half the amount of work.
All good things come to an end eventually and Christmas came and went as it always does. I was at the end of my severance pay and I would now be relying on unemployment and my savings. I wonder what the new year will have in store for me......
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