whew! the decorating is finished...

Well, I'm finally done festooning the house for the holidays, and it looks lovely. As usual, it's rather overdone, but what can I say? I like it that way. Yesterday, I started at 11 a.m. and worked until 9 p.m., stopping only to eat, pee, and get online briefly. My saint of a husband kept Nick occupied away from the house all day so that I could work uninterrupted. I got the mantel and entertainment center all done, as well as the other interior decor, and got my "secondary" trees up and decorated. During Nick's nap, Brian helped me put up the big tree, and I got it all fluffed and ready to decorate. I chatted with Tim on the phone whilst I fluffed, which made the chore much less onerous. Today, I put all 8,541,236 ornaments on the big tree (it's really very out of control), and we did the outside stuff. And hallelujah - we're done! We can now enjoy the beauty for 5 weeks or so, until it's time to dismantle it and pack it all away again. Sometimes, I wonder if it's worth it, but then when I get it all up, I remember that it most definitely is.

Exercising went by the wayside yesterday, for the 4th day in a row, but tonight, I'm heading down to the basement to walk and ellipse :) while I watch Desperate Housewives.

Here are some pics of my wonderland:
1) my kitschy white kitchen tree, with glittering balls of colorful goodness
2) my real aluminum tree from the 1950s, with various balls in shades of blue
3) the big living room tree - no theme - just ornaments that I love or that mark particular events in our lives
4) my mantel
5) my entertainment center, which has my Santa collection in addition to pictures with Santa, including two from MY childhood!