Decorations Abounding

2016 Edition of the Doan Christmas Tree

The turkeys are safely stored until next November. It was a sad repacking them as I really enjoy looking at them. They make me smile.

Christmas is arriving in the form of decorations. 

Riordin Helping Decorate

Chris and I spent yesterday, except for two emergency trips to Lowe's, decorating. And, sadly, we still are not finished. 

We made some mulled wine from a kit that we had purchased a couple of years ago and enjoyed decorating our way through the day. It definitely helped as we overcome the obstacles to completing our task.

Fortunately, we decided to erect only one tree this year. Why, fortunately? Well, it turns out that half of the lights on the pre-lit tree are burned out. I'm not sure it is repairable. So we went to the tree which requires string lights only to discover that we had reallocated the white lights formerly used on that tree for another decorating project. It is always something. So we bought new lights and found that one set was defective and that we needed five strands, not the four we had purchased. Back to Lowe's. 

Louis and Rirodin Under the Tree

Along the way we had some additional help from Riordin. He loved checking our the decorations and the boxes. We always have to ensure that he is not trapped in one of them before we put them away.

As soon as everything was cleaned up, both cats decided to claim the space under the tree. It really isn't complete yet because my Polar Express train isn't set up. We were just too tired from almost 10 hours of decorating to deal with some of the smaller details. 

So the house is nearly ready for the next holiday. This is the third monthly transformation, the first is Halloween at the beginning of October, the second is Thanksgiving and the season of the turkey at the beginning of November, and the third is Christmas which is the first weekend after Thanksgiving!

Of course, remember, I began the Christmas decorations on Veteran's Day and then did the Snow Village last weekend. 

Well, we are ready for the sprint to the New Year!

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD