A little behind

So normally I am one of those people that rushes to put the tree up right after Thanksgiving. But this year, I just couldn't seem to find the energy. (Especially after cooking all day and staying up all night for black friday!) Then the cat eating stuff really scared me! So I just had put it off. Well yesterday the Internet was down, so I had no good excuses, and decided that I must not procrastinate any longer. So Carissa helped me move the furniture (well "helped" by finding all her lost toys that were hiding under the couch!) then helped find the boxes in the basement. We started setting up the tree, plugged in the lights of my *only used once last year, easy to set up and just plug in the lights, pre-lit tree*, and soon discovered that 2 entire strands of lights were completely out. I thought no big deal, I've got plenty of lights here, since I don't have to put on lights anymore....lots of extras.

(I snapped this picture after I noticed the lights burned out, but Carissa insisted on "decorating" the tree, so I allowed a few balls to go on for a quick snapshot!)

So I began the slow and tedious process of unwinding lights that were either put on by inhuman hands or someone who was so high they couldn't feel the pain of the branches digging into their hands! I couldn't believe how they managed to get these lights wrapped on there. And after 45 minutes to un-do ONE strand, I got out the "extra" lights and NOT ONE OF THEM WORKED! GRRRRRRR! I had at least 10 strands of lights and they so conveniently don't work.....at all! So at this point, I have a choice. I can either spend the next two hours getting the other strands off to replace them with new strands that I have to go buy........OR I can just get a new tree! So to make matters worse, Andrew had taken my van to have some stuff looked at, so I was without a car to transport a large box home. But we thought we could fit it in Donavan's car. When Carissa heard that she was going to be left at home, she pitched a royal fit. So that meant we had to take 2 cars so we had a car seat. Off we went to Target. Nothing. Off to Wal-mart. Nothing. Decided we (Carissa) were done and came home, with NOTHING!

In comes my hero. Andrew got home from work with my van, and I told him about the tree. At this point it was halfway up and he could see the evidence of my mangled hands and after testing all the lights that were goners, (of course he didn't believe me) told me I could go to the store and see if I can find something. Good enough for me. Off to Tai-Pan I went with my coupon in hand! Found the tree I love, and brought that bad boy home! Set it right up (easy as that) all the lights work, and it looks lovely! Still haven't put the ornaments on it yet, as Carissa is lining them up on the kitchen floor to look at them all! I've warned her that when they go on the tree, she will not be allowed to take them off, but I have a feeling this is a battle I will be fighting every single day until it comes down. (I'm starting to remember why I put it off in the first place!) So the tree will be finished sometime today, and then I can start on other holiday things. Maybe some more shopping!!!

Thought I would put this picture up. I needed a picture for my december desktop (yes, I'm crazy like that!) So we went out to snap a few. Didn't even bother looking at my settings, and every one of them ended up all blown out. Played around with my new lightroom, and got it looking pretty cool. (Sorry, Blogger really messes up the color, and I don't want to take the extra steps to fix it) This one I think should be titled "Naughty or Nice?" She just looks so angelic, but we all know the truth!