Phil and I are alone. I decorate for the two of us. Maybe one or two friends will drop by. So much work for a tree that took up half our living room and nobody saw. We decided to go smaller but didn't want to pay a lot. We looked on line and found fake trees with lights ranging in price from $9.99 to $350.00. Are you kidding me? Really? We spent 2 days wandering Big Lots, Sears, K-Mart, Target, and... stupidly, the 99 Cent only stores. (Like they'd have a tree for 99 cents.) We felt stupid. We laughed and laughed.
Phil had a GREAT idea. Maybe we could adjust our old fake tree to a smaller version. OH! FREE! Turned out to be a very good idea!
We have created, from the larger tree, a smaller tree. It is now sitting on an end table between the love seat and the matching chair. It is FABULOUS. A little inventiveness and we have a smaller version of the tree we've celebrated for years. PERFECTION. I didn't have to use all my cheap decorations to fill out the tree. The tree is truly a collection of my favorite ornaments, very few bulbs. (It includes Magic Johnson, Superman and an old Brown's bulb. I have the Wicked Witch of the West and several fairies. I have several angels and two birds' nests. One year, one of my sisters gave me a collection of small Santas. They are all on the tree. I've ten apples, an odd bulb or two and some carved pieces, gifts from my time with ANGELS IN AMERICA. I have a dove on top. (Hard to see.)
The old version of the tree was so large we had to rearrange the room. The T.V. ended up blocking the fireplace. I've always wanted the candles in the fireplace for Christmas. (I'm allergic to wood fires, so..)
This year nothing in the room had to change except to put the Peace Plant in that other corner. The beautiful Orchid my sister-in-law gave me still has its place, I just added a single small red bulb. Oh! My home looks Christmasy and perfect! I'll take some pictures and post on facebook.
I will leave you with the State Flower of California. Blooming still in December:
Ingenious! I totally understand the rearranging thing. We have to do it in our den as well. We always get a real tree - I love the smell, of course and quite frankly, we have no place to store a fake tree! We haven't decorated yet - this week will be decorating week.
ReplyDeleteI miss you, friend. I think a holiday phone call is in order.
xo
Claudia
Good for you guys - that's what Tom and I probably would've figured out as well - take what ya have and work with it :-) At this point, we set a small 3 foot tree on our radiator below the living room window. It's the best size for Tom and I to manage and enjoy. We rarely have visitors to see our tree and decorations - but we don't care. I have many of Mom's old ornaments, plus her old nativity - which I cherish more and more every year. As always, thanks for sharing the photo...I need to share a photo of our cute tree also. Denise
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