Decorating the Tree

So we spent the afternoon decorating the Christmas tree. Alison couldn't wait, so I brought up the bins with the ornaments and she started pulling them out setting everything up so when Kris got home from work we could start.




Even Sarah decided to set her ornaments up:

We ended up spending about an hour and a half doing their ornaments, I started putting on mine and Kris's. As you can see with the tree in the corner, we lose a good portion of ornament hanging area, so with all the ornaments the girls have, we (Kris and I) left off at least half of ours.




And finally, after a little more than two hours, Alison ended the decorating by hiding the pickle.


Here is the finished tree... Not bad. I think we've had better, but I'll live with it.

Maybe it'll look better with snow outside and presents underneath.

The Lights

Anyone who knows me knows I am fanatical about putting lights on my Christmas tree. Usually I put them on as I am putting the tree together, but this year due to time constraints, I had put the tree up on Thanksgiving night, Black Friday the lights went on, and now today we will be putting the ornaments on the tree.

This year, I ended up pulling the lights out of the bin and before I even started wrapping the tree, I had 6 strings that were completely out. How do lights go bad just sitting in a bin when they were working when they went in is beyond me. Sort of like wondering where your socks go when they get lost in the dryer.

So before starting I had to go out and get some new lights. I think that should be an annual thing, just buy 10 new strings every year. But once the lights were ready, the stringing began.

This is what 1000 lights looks like.


...and after 1600 lights...

...with 2000 lights...

...2400 Lights and counting....

...and finally... 2700 mini white lights.

I had to go back and look at my previous tree entries and I think that I have topped my all-time grand total for lights on the tree. I'm not sure if that is something to be proud of or not.

So the ornaments will be going on today... check back for pictures of this year's tree.

Happy New Year

As is tradition, New Year's Day was spend taking down all the Christmas decorations, and more specifically, the Christmas tree. Sadly, while taking the tree down this year, the top was damaged beyond repair. It was actually broken for the last year and a half, and I had it wired up but this year was the last one. All the plastic rings holding the branches on the top part of the tree broke, resulting in branches falling off on each row. So next year we'll be searching for a new tree. I hope we can find one that was similar to this one. Both Kris and I like the skinny trees since they take up less room, and in a small house, space is everything.

2008 Christmas Tree

After getting a call from my mom and dad in Florida asking about my tree, I thought I would post a picture of the 2008 tree. I started a few years ago taking a picture of the tree to see what it looked like every year, since I take an entire day to get it put up and decorated. Here is this year’s tree complete with about 75% of our ornaments and all 2050 lights (yes, it will actually make the room warmer when the lights are on). Not a record though. I forget the year, but if I recall correctly, the record light count for the Hahn Christmas tree is 2400. Maybe next year, I’ll buy a few extra strings to be able to beat it.