It's a Work in Progress...

Anyone who knows me, knows that I LOVE CHRISTMAS! I love to decorate. I love to cook goodies with my Nana's recipes. I love to shop! I even like to wrap presents! But for some reason, I just haven't been able to get myself in gear this year.

Truth be told, I have this self-imposed, time consuming way that I like for my tree to be lit. And unfortunately, I just haven't wanted to take the time to do it. Any normal, non-OCD person would have gotten over herself and just slung the lights on the tree and been done with it. But, of course, I'm not normal!

The first year I was married, one of my aunts taught me her way to do lights. She has a knack for decorating Christmas trees, so I tried to absorb as much of her lighting wisdom as possible! After all, her services are in demand during the holidays, and I didn't know if I'd be on my own to recreate a Christmas tree masterpiece from then on.

Here's one of her trade secrets I absorbed: she swears by stringing several sets of blinking white lights on the inside of the tree. She says it gives it the look of fireflies twinkling in the branches. And guess what? She's so right!

Where my problem comes in is that it looks a gazillion times better when the rest of the lights on your tree are white as well. I love a Christmas tree with white lights! Call me a Christmas lights snob if you must, but I just think that's how a tree should look. My joys, on the other hand, think we need colored lights on our tree.

I've cried and fussed and snotted and snorted and kicked and screamed and cried some more- all to no avail. You see, the little joys used their Jedi mind trick capabilities and brainwashed Superman, thus out numbering me... for the 3rd year in a row!

Once I finally realized that no amount of whining was going to help me get my way, I grabbed a box of Kleenex and storage bin of lights and got busy!

Here's the tree with no lights and no fluffing! (I know you Christmas tree enthusiast out there know exactly what I mean by fluffing a tree! Right?!?! If not, give my aunt a call!)

Here is the tree with the twinkling-firefly-effect!

Here it is fully lit, in all its twinkling, colorful glory!

Oh yeah, and here is the tree when it finally dawned on me that the tree lights would actually be visible if I turned the overhead lights off! OOOPS!

Did I mention that I'm a little sleep deprived from being out all night watching my TIGERS beat the GAMECOCKS last night?

Well, hopefully tomorrow I will get the ornaments on and the star hung. I'll be posting more pictures of all our decorating in early December, as part of BooMama's Christmas Tour of Homes. If you haven't checked her blog out, click here. For the home tour, click here.