Christmas season again

I can hardly believe it.  This time of year makes me all nostalgic, and this year is no exception.  My first year as a married woman.  Our first Christmas tree.  The first time decorating our house.  The list goes on and on.

Well, I finally got the tree from storage.  (A task that took me three attempts.)  John has never seen this tree put up.  He bought it on sale at an after Christmas sale in 2003.  Then he was either out of town or deployed so he hasn't used it.  Ever.  It's never been out of the box.  He thought it was a small to moderate sized tree.  Well, I got to put it together.

The sucker is 7 1/2 feet tall.  It barely fits in our freakin house.  Oh, and since it has been moved a half dozen times and never opened, there were several lights that were broken leaving sections of the pre-lit tree dark.  Which means I had to find them and replace them in order to have the tree fully lit.  I thought this project would take a couple of hours and it took all day.

Oh well.

It was worth it.

A lot of my ornaments have never seen a tree either.  I have been collecting them, waiting for a time to have my very own tree.  It was fate, I tell you.

A gift from Sarah.  2004.

I have no idea where I got this.  But I love it.

I have no idea where I got this either!!  But it works well.

I also just like the simple glass ornaments.

The tree topper that came with our tree.  It's sparkly, so I automatically like it.

Another fave.  I also have a green one and blue one.

Ta-daaaaahhhhhhhhh.

And then I had a hot cocoa spiked with peppermint mocha kahlua.