The tree is decorated

Thursday, Ann and I went to three places before finally settling on the right tree for the right price. It looked great at the tree lot and only cost $40. People say that you could get a nice artificial tree for a bit more than that and that it would last for years and not cause damage to the environment by cutting down trees. My argument has always been, well, when you get rid of that fake tree eventually, how long is it going to take to decompose in the landfill. One thousand years? Ten Thousand? Besides, most real Christmas trees these days are grown on farms for the exact purpose of becoming Christmas trees.
We got the tree home and of course, it doesn't fit in the stand as is, so I had to remove some of the lower branches, in addition to about an inch of the trunk so it would absorb water. The tree seals itself off after cutting so you need to make the cut and then get it into water within a few minutes or it will not take up any water and thus become even more of a fire hazard than it already is as a real tree.
Once the lower branches were removed, one side of the tree didn't look perfect any more. But see, that doesn't really matter. Even Charlie Brown's tree looked beautiful once it was decorated, and we knew we could fill in the gaps and open spaces with dangling ornaments and lights.
I put the lights on Thursday night, and Ann got a lot of it decorated while I was at work on Friday. When I came home, she was beat and I finished decorating it. And really, it looks pretty nice. Now we can relax and enjoy the glow.

A fabulous sunset tonight.

It was another amazing sunset here in Salt Lake county. Here are some pics.

Looking southwest over our house.

Killing two birds with one stone, a fabulous sunset, and  my Dr. Seuss Christmas lights.

I hope the sunset was just as nice wherever you may be.

Ushering in the Christmas season: My light hanging debacle

I got my Christmas lights put up on Thanksgiving morning. Actually, I had been invited to a Turkey Bowl football game, and had briefly considered running a 5k that morning. As it turned out, it was very cold, and for both playing football and running, a little colder than I would like. As for the football game, I wishfully considered it and then decided that it was a great opportunity for injury to occur--injury that would seriously hamper my ability to bring in income at my highest opportunity for overtime.
So, in order to reduce the risk of getting injured, I opted for putting up Christmas lights. I used to watch Bishop Stevenson (not really a bishop, but that's another long story) out there in the frigid air in his insulated coveralls putting up lights. He did it at night too, probably so he could see how they looked as he got them connected. Anyway that job looked very cold in the dark. I was doing it in the light.
And it was still very cold. I came in several times to get warm. Of course, it would've been a bit warmer if I'd had gloves on. As I began putting them up, I realized that for another year, I had forgotten to buy some new clips to attach to the rain gutter or shingles and I was going to be stuck with using the metal screwed in hooks that previous owners of the house had used. It was either that or wait until the next day off to get them up, and since it takes me a while to motivate myself to do it in the first place, that wasn't going to happen. It was now or never.
As I actually began hanging the first string of lights, I realized that last year, I had lost several of the metal hooks--never a good option because they fall out so easily--and that there were huge gaps between the places I'd need to secure the light strings. In some places the gaps were about eight feet long. This is not conducive to good, straight, uniform light hanging, but perfect for Dr. Seuss-type decorating. Did I mention that I'm a natural for the Dr. Seuss lighting?
Within an hour or two, I had the lights up and working, despite having started at the wrong end of the plug and having to figure out a new way to connect power. Now, all that's left is the star on top of the roof. I hope to get that done next week sometime and then maybe I'll take a pic and post it.