After several months of begging, Hi-C, the household bread- winner, relented to buying a holiday tree. I have to admit, I liked the 8 foot white one on display at Target. Paying $200 for one was out of the question, though, especially if my desire to celebrate the holiday season waxes and wanes from year to year.
This one, a 6 foot, pre-lit tree from Big Lots, set us back a mere $25. Hooray! Might I brag, and say it looks quite charming through the front window, too. Almost makes us look like a "normal" family.
Last Sunday we set out to decorate it, pulling out all the decorations from Christmases past and added a stack of new ornaments from Old Time Pottery, which are plastic, metallic, lime green tear drop shaped ($3 for 25, we got 3 boxes of them). The tree is very cohesive, mostly pale pink, lime green, silver and gold, and coincidentally matches the 2 holiday cards we've received thus far.
The stack of holiday items hidden (and now exposed) in the closet of no return consisted of: my jingle bell wreath (which is on the back door to prevent it from becoming a dog toy), vintage ornaments collected over time from thrift stores, and a nativity set (a gift from the mister's mom to me last year). Not a hefty load, and very representative of holidays past.
During the decorating spree we listened to the holiday music on hand: a han

dful of vinyl that includes Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, and the funk-electric Salsoul Orchestra. You can bet if Hi-C knew where his copy of Esquievel's Christmas album was, that woulda been on repeat, too. Once the tree was finished, we decided to go in search of newer music to add to the collection, and how do you do that on the cheap?!? Thrift store vinyl. After 1 1/2 hours, and less than $20 later, we came home with a Johnny Walker box half filled with very good quality vinyl, nearly all holiday (minus 3, which were irresistible for one reason or another), to make the season bright. We now have a set of Perry Como albums, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, a boxed set of symphonic Christmas music, Bing, Frank, and more.
And tonight, me and the gals in the family are getting together for some prime crafting time. We'll drink tea, use the hell out of some hot glue, sit on the floor crafting and make gifts galore for friends and family. . . all the while bonding over our craftiness. Isn't that what the season is all about?