Saturday, December 02, 2006

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

14 comments:

mrichme said...

Congrats Sheepish on getting the tree up. CamMad's tree will be hopefully up in the next couple of hours. CamMad has made the task or re-organizing the space an all-day task.

Julie said...

The husbeast has been saying for a week now "I should really put up the Christmas lights tonight..." and every day he doesn't do it.

I'm not saying anything or I'll get stuck doing it. Forget that.

You know, what's wrong with leaving decorations up all year? They look festive, and it saves a lot of bother.

sheep#100 said...

Cool tree, Sheep!

We are planning to erect ours after Handy Jerry is done. Might not be until Christmas Eve, but we will have a tree.

catsmum said...

that's a VERY nice job of tree decorating Sheepie. Now after all thgose kind words I better go put up the rest of the chrissie photos

debsnm said...

Your tree is lovely - and I'm thinking catsmum needs to be Santa's very last stop - I was exhausted just looking at the picks!

Anonymous said...

Your tree looks beautiful! I haven't even thought about putting ours up yet. Sorry about the light problem. That's such a pain when that happens.

Could you give Amy the wrist warmers closer to Christmas instead of at your appointment? But, you won't need to do that because you're going to get them done in time.

April said...

Your tree looks gorgeous, Sheepie, good job! And very festive.

I'd *love* a tree but then I'd have to board Andy for the month of December.

Teri S. said...

Congrats on getting the tree up. It looks great! You aren't the only one who has trouble with K2P2 ribbing. I manage to get it wrong every time I knit flat. I hope the rest of your weekend goes well and you make good progress on the handwarmers.

catsmum said...

Sorry Sheepie, time zone wise santa comes to Australia way way ahead of the US... and there's more photos up now [ evil laugh ]

Sheila said...

Your tree is lovely!
Now I'm off to check out Catsmum's photos.

mehitabel said...

Annie, I'm intimidated by Susan's photos too. But then, knowing you've got your tree up already is intimidating me too. I haven't put one up for the last three years, and I don't know if I'm ready to do it this year. But The Daughter is talking about outside lights, at least, so that might be a start...

Mia said...

Oh yeah, that's a good lookin' tree there! Good job Sheepie. I put a wreath over the fireplace and I'm callling it good enough fo this year *grin*

And wasn't that a WEIRD weather storm that ripped thru? We got it too...

Anonymous said...

Your tree looks wonderful!
The handwarmers will come together. Remember sheep are adaptive creatures. They live virtually all over this fine Earth in varied climates. They eat what is available to them at that location. Those reindeer are a fussy lot. They live only in the coldest northern areas. Yes, as a sheep you'll adapt however you must to get those handwarmers done by Christmas.
Karen
http://nothingbutknit.blog-city.com/

Anonymous said...

The tree looks gorgeous! I haven't even thought about bringing out the decorations yet. I still have plenty of time, don't I?