The life of a Xmas tree: Part 2

This is the 2nd Thanksgiving in a row now that I haven't gotten to put up the Xmas tree at Mom and Dad's house. The loss of this tradition hurts me quite a bit, but I understand Dad not wanting to do it. But I will miss it until I can find my own tradition. So in lieu of actually putting it up I'll at least describe the process which is fun in its own way.

Our Christmas Tree

I helped Mom put up the tree every year that I can remember. I'm sure I started when I was very young, hanging the bulbs that I could reach. Mom and I had a very specific order to how we put the tree together. It is possible that I threw my OCD on this a bit as I got older... or perhaps it was the Catholic kid in me that liked the ritual of it. I eventually took it over completely, and Mom got to just sit and laugh about how fast I was. But this is how it went:

1. Assemble tree. I was lightning quick at this. This was the type of tree with a wooden pole in the center with color coded holes. Then the wire ends on the branches were painted with color so you knew what order to put them on. I tend to be a hands on type gal so as soon as I was old enough I pretty much took over the assembly process. And if anyone helped I felt like I was the supervisor... whether I really was or not I'm not sure."

2. Lights, multi-colored, non-flashing... flashing lights gave mom a headache and they give me one too.

3. Silver garland. Then it's ready for the real OCD treatment.

4. Angel on top.

5. My brother and I each had an ornament... silk bulbs. I'm not sure why they were "ours" other than mom said they were. Mine was pink and Bri's was blue. Those go on first.

6. Blue bulbs. Yup, the 40 year old blue bulbs were the next to hang. Those get evenly spaced around the tree.

7. Gingerbread men with our names on them.

8. Clear plastic angels.

9. Red strawberries.

10. Flashbulb (remember those!) covered in glitter that I made in Brownies. It hangs in a very specific spot on the tree in the front.

11. Weebles, tea cup, mini barbie, various other toys turned into ornaments... we hung them in the back. They made ugly ornaments, but mom liked having reminders of our childhood.

12. Everything else until the tree was literally bursting with stuff.

What's really funny is that if I go back through all my Xmas pictures over the years the tree looks the same every single year. It's kind of awesome really. :)