December is one of the busiest times of the year for many people and I’m no exception. I have a never ending to-do list that doesn’t seem to get any shorter. I have been trying to put up our Christmas tree since the day after Thanksgiving but I can finally say it’s up!
Getting the tree up is an adventure. I need to go into our closet under the stairs and pull out all the other boxes (Halloween stuff, empty boxes of electronics no one wants to throw away incase we sell it and need the box again, storage boxes of wrapping stuff, you get the idea) and dig my way to the fake Christmas tree and decorations. You can see why I keep putting it off! This takes time and effort and is easily pushed in favor of other pressing needs like finishing crochet items for the craft fair I decided to participate in at the last moment. So I finally liberated the tree, got it up and started decorating it.
This year was not my best work. I pulled out the lights, tested them to see if they worked, wrapped them around the tree, turned them on and…half of them didn’t work. What?! I tested them! The top of the tree wasn’t lit and I had to decide if I wanted to take them all back down or try to string another one at the top and somehow attach it what to was already there. I was too tired to start all over again so I just unwrapped the top and strung the new one around. This strand of lights was very long so I strung it all the way to the bottom, between the lights that were already there. I envisioned a tree full of lights. I threw the half of the non-working strand to the back of the tree (no one would see it) and plugged it in. Half the lights didn’t work! What?! But I tested it! Luckily, the top worked so I left it alone. So there would be a bunch of no good for nothing lights on the tree. I was tired so at this point, I didn’t care.
Then, I pulled out the decorations. I have a lot of decorations. I stared at the decorations. The light fiasco got me thinking about how old the lights were. I bought them what may have been 20 years ago along with all my decorations because they were 75% off after Christmas. There were all these purple and gold decorations and lights so I nabbed them. I was so proud of myself for finding such a deal and purple is my favorite color. The next year, my tree looked fabulous.
One of the signature things I do with our tree is fill it with photo ornaments of family I have made over the years. Every year, I painstakingly and lovingly put them all on the tree along with all my purple and gold decorations. I have a lot of picture ornaments. I looked at them after my light fiasco and put them back in the box. I looked at all my purple and gold decorations and noticed how some were starting to fall apart. I also pondered how I had acquired my daughter’s decorations and lights over the years. Her lights were purple (a different purple than mine) and blue. It got me thinking about getting rid of all of it. Just chucking it and starting over. Those who know me can stop laughing now. They know I wouldn’t throw anything away but donation is a strong possibility for the those pieces that are still nice.
So I was staring at my ornaments pondering their demise and staring at my tree in all it’s multi-hued wonder, trying to figure out how I could make it look good with a minimal amount of work. I basically threw a few fake icicles on it (they still looked good). I grabbed a handful of Christmas balls out of a bag and shoved them on the tree. I had a bag of tinsel that looked easy and I threw that on the tree too. I figured the tinsel would cover up all mistakes and lazy tree trimming while still looking pretty and called it a day.
Ta-dah!
Not so bad 😊
So where’s the freebie stocking? Well, as I was pushing things around in the ornament container, I pulled out our stockings. Every year, I take one look at them and proclaim that that is the year I will crochet myself a new stocking. That year comes and goes and you guessed it, no stocking. But this year will be different. This year I am committed. I will make myself a new stocking. I even looked up stockings for inspiration. I found this one (below) that I thought was really cute.
I also saw this one (below) but it didn’t have a free pattern. It’s from a book but I think I can do my own version. (The link includes the book that it came from. I like to make sure to give credit for my inspiration).
I’ll probably do it in Tunisian crochet and I’ll use a different color or colors. Notice how I say that as if I’m really going to make it.
But still, I proclaim that this is the year I make myself a stocking!
I am not affiliated with any websites nor do I make any money from these sites. They are simply patterns I like or would like to try myself.
yochet 
The tree looks wonderful!
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Thanks 🌲
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