Good Call, Man In Red!

Santa went with reindeer. Excellent decision. Sheep have no business messing with Christmas stuff. We lack the necessary commitment to the process. We have the spirit, just not the patience to make it all work. Had The Big Guy chosen a flock of the White and Fluffy to pull his holiday conveyance, we'd all be waiting until about July Fourth for our goodies. Sheep like the grazing and mulling, not the springing to action.

Plans to erect the mighty Christmas Pine in my humble living room last night were thwarted by the weather. Yeah, yeah...I'm good with the excuses, I know. But this was serious!!! We had a massive cluster of thunderstorms move through the area. I did the grocery shopping (at the store not more than ten minutes from my house, mind you) without incident. When I crossed the line from that town to mine own however, it was obvious that there was an interesting evening ahead. The power was clearly not flowing through the lines to any site at or near my home. It was dark, dark, dark.

Not a night for tree decorating. Not at all...

I got up this morning having forgotten all about the task. By 10:00, I knew there was something I meant to do...what was it???? A perusal through my Bloglines feeds was just the reminder I needed. Anyone been to visit with catsmum lately? That lady has the spirit! And the talent, strength of character and back to pull it off. I'm hoping that Santa comes to my house before stopping at hers (I'll be perusing the whole time zone thing to see if this is going to work out) because I can't see him ever leaving her place once he's there. Seriously...go look. I've never seen a more beautifully decorated home at holiday time. She also has some neat decorating ideas that will work for even the most lazy of Sheep.

Now, I won't even pretend that I can compete with that. But, as I began the whole process of getting the tree up I did find my own little tip that might be useful. It's a quickie, but saves me a great deal of trouble each year. For those of you with pre-lit trees or who are able to store your trees intact, this will be of no consequence. Those of us who bought our trees ten years ago on sale at a now-defunct department store will know the trials of which I speak. Here's how I store my light strings each year at season's end:

Wound around a left-over wrapping paper tube.

I cut a slit in each end to secure the plug part of the string so that I can find that part with less of the not-so-full-of-the-holiday-spirit-cussing. It is not the strongest of holders given that it is mere cardboard, but it stands up for a year of storage and I'm sure to have another one the following year when I finish the wrapping. This takes all of a minute to do when taking down the tree and has saved me hours in untangling. Sadly, it did not inspire me to remember to test the lights. I had them up and ready to go before I realized that I have a short somewhere in the string. This required some adjusting and fussing with light placement. I'll probably need to buy another set as well. Poop...

Still, it's up and done and is lending quite the festive touch to my otherwise Scroogy outlook right now.

Tah-dah!!!

That done and out of the way, I looked forward to the more sedate task of starting the holiday handwarmers that I hope to present to my stylist next weekend during my appointment. Perhaps it is all the blood that drained out of my brain while I was standing with my head cocked to the left trying to see if the tree was straight. Maybe moving the three thousand pound recliner has given me something of a small stroke. It could just be that I was never all that good at knitting to begin with and have somehow convinced myself that I have greater skills than I actually possess. Whatever the reason, it seems that I am now incapable of pulling off a k2 p2 ribbing. After ripping the foolish things twice, it seemed sensible that I just take a nap. Really, it was best for all residents of the Sheep household. Things were getting, shall we say, "tense." I'll try again tonight.

So, I basically can say I put up a tree today. And that doesn't even boast full lighting. Despite high hopes for holiday accomplishments, I fell quite short. I may need to come up with a back-up plan for Amy The World's Greatest Stylist. Santa would not put up with this over at The Workshop, I'm quite sure of this.

And that, boys and girls, is why reindeer rule at the North Pole. That and I suspect they have a better Union than we sheep...

SA