I’m about 12 hours later in posting my daily post today, but I do have a good reason, really I do! My dog ate my homework…oh, wait, that was for something else…(grin!) I was having so much fun blog-hopping yesterday I lost track of time, and finally started pulling ornaments off the tree about 3:00. When I finally got it stripped down and everything put neatly into the new storage tubs I got (so I could finally eliminate the dilapidated boxes that have seen more Christmases than they should have), it had gotten dark outside so I had to wait until today to schlep everything back out to the shed. We don’t have a light in the shed (yet), and hubby forgot to bring in the big Christmas tree box so I could take apart the tree and put it back in its box for easy storage. After I got all the decorations taken off, and the extra strings of lights I had put on it to compensate for the multitudes of lights that had burned out from last years ‘random timer incident’, I was disappointed to see that more lights had gone out (most likely from the ‘strain’ of so many bulbs actually being completely burnt out). This is what the tree looked like ‘naked’:

There are whole sections of lights burnt out on 3 of the 4 sections of tree! I had planned on getting a new one for next year when they went on clearance, but unfortunately there were no 9-foot trees left at all. They only had the really short ones, or the really skinny ones, and if I’m going to have a fake tree, I want it tall and full! 😉 Ah well, at least if I decide to keep this one for its 6th Christmas next year, I can run more lights on it again, but that kind of defeats the whole purpose of having a pre-lit tree! I had to leave the tree up one more night, so I could retrieve its box from the shed when I could see what I was doing. Which of course also included reorganizing some things in the shed, since hubby tends to just put stuff in there with no rhyme or reason. 😉 Taking the tree apart was a struggle, the sections didn’t come apart very easily, it was as if they wanted to stick around for a bit longer. I kept thinking to myself ‘Wonder if this would count as a ‘tree pose’ in WiiFit since I can’t seem to do that one?’ (snicker!) Of course at that moment I almost took a header off the ladder still hanging onto the tree – sort of like falling over when trying to do the ‘tree pose’ on WiiFit! 😉

I thought about just moving the tree intact out into the yard and see how long it would take the neighbors to notice a ‘new’ tree in our yard, or how long it would take them to figure out it was fake…heh, heh! I finally got the 60+ pound box-o-tree moved safely into the shed, then brought all the storage bins out and stacked them neatly. Hubby’s going to think he’s walked into someone else’s shed, because now that it’s organized, there’s lots more open space. 😉 So at long last Christmas Cheer has been put away back into the shed for another year, the living room is back in it’s organized state…until Princess Nagger scatters her toys around… 😉

Then I got a special treat just as I finished…in the mail today arrived my special necklace that Kristen over at La Dolce Vita made for me! I sure didn’t expect it this fast, she’s good! 🙂 So of course I have to show off what she created for me:

Need a closer look? OK, here you go:

Isn’t it great?! I’m going to send my hubby to her site with some hints for Valentine’s Day…(grin!) I picked green and purple crystals – since green is my favorite color, and purple is the Princess Nagger’s favorite. When Princess Nagger saw the necklace and saw that it had a purple crystal on it, she immediately reached for it…so I showed it to her and said: “What does it say?” She read it and her face immediately fell…poor thing! So of course I’ll have to get a special one made for her…but she better be careful, or I’ll get one made that says “Nagger” on it! (evil grin!!)

So that’s been my hectic/busy/productive day today, which is why I’m so late making a post. I finally had a chance to actually sit down and relax when I started writing this post, so thank you for giving me a chance to sit still for a minute! LOL! Don’t forget – tomorrow is “Tuesday’s Tribute” over at Halftime Lessons…come join the fun! 🙂


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37 Comments

  1. Well at least it almost looks like a pattern on the tree!s Like you meant to do that!s Light up the top, then no light, then light and then no light, see a pattern. 🙂

  2. Thanks, Anne!s Yep, no skinny, scrawny trees for me! 😉 s I absolutely love how my necklace turned out – Kristen is a true artist! 🙂 s
    s
    “Naggy Girl” would be funny for the Nagging Princess! LOL!! Wonder if she’d appreciate it… O:-)
    s
    LOL!s You’d probably freak if I organized your closet – I have to have mine organized by type of clothing (short sleeve, long sleeve, etc.) then organized by colors…my sister and I used to keep ‘charts’ of our closets so we could plan what to wear to school – you know, so we wouldn’t wear the same thing twice in two weeks!s I’m afraid I’m imparting that onto my Little Princess, too…People give me a hard time about even having my cupboards arranged in Alphabetical order…yeah, I know, I need some serious mental help! LOL!!s
    s
    Thanks a bunch for stopping by! 😀

  3. LOL!s Yes, I did notice that – at least my tree was working with my OCD tendency…keeping the outages nice and ‘even’…heh, heh!s If the lights were red and white, it’d look like a candy cane tree! 😀
    s
    Thanks so much for stopping by, Stacy!s And thanks for having your name spelled ‘right’…no pesky ‘e’ or ‘i’…no offense to the other Stacy’s of the world… 😉

  4. LOL!s Yes, I did notice that – at least my tree was working with my OCD tendency…keeping the outages nice and ‘even’…heh, heh!s If the lights were red and white, it’d look like a candy cane tree! 😀 s Ooh, there’s a thought – string red lights in the darkened areas… LOL!!
    ss
    Thanks so much for stopping by, Stacy!s And thanks for having your name spelled ‘right’…no pesky ‘e’ or ‘i’…no offense to the other Stacy’s of the world… 😉

  6. Yea is right! 😉 s Now to get my dining room cleared out of wine that needs to be racked and put in the basement, and move the Christmas wrapping paper, ribbons and bows up to the attic…gotta get the house ‘puppy proof’ before Saturday! 😀 s Thanks so much for stopping by, Lydia! 😀

  7. LoL!s You’re funny 🙂 s Your necklace is so cute!s I love that look–and now I want one, too!s

  8. Glad your day was productive – I took my ornaments off yesterday too!s I haven’t been able to take apart my tree yet though.s I’m also wondering how bad it would be to leave my village up since that’s just a winter scene.s Ha ha.

  9. I was thinking about getting an artificial tree this year too, after they went on sale of course, but by the time I made it to the store, all they had left were the tall skinny ones, and the all white or all gold tree, which we’re just not doing. Nice necklace btw. 😉

  10. Thanks, Nicole! 😉 s I love my new necklace – Kristen sure does awesome work!s And she’ll customize them any way you want!s So I have a feeling I’m going to end up getting a whole slew of fun necklaces (for myself and for my friends and family) and working Kristen’s creativity to the max! LOL!!s Thanks so much for stopping by! 😀

  11. Glad to know I wasn’t the only one late in taking the ornaments off and getting Christmas stuff put away…LOL!s Yeah, I don’t see why you can’t leave your village up, since it’s a ‘winter’ scene…you can just say you’re celebrating winter! 😉 s Thanks so much for stopping by, Carey! 😀

  12. OH, yeah, I forgot they did have the white ones left, too – and PINK!s A Pink Christmas tree?s No thanks! 😀 s I guess if I wanted to get a good one on clearance, I probably should have gone earlier…you know, instead of 2 weeks or so after Christmas! (snicker!)s But I did score with some cool Christmas decor for next year from Target at 75% off…of course there were some things I thought I should get, but didn’t – and all the Christmas stuff was totally gone, replaced with Valentine’s Day stuff…TWO DAYS LATER!s Guess I didn’t strike while the iron was hot like I should have… 😉 s Thanks so much for stopping by, Mrs. Bear! 🙂

  15. congrats on getting the tree down!!! i never quite understand why that always seems to be my job… while putting it up everyone wants to help!

  18. Thanks, Annie!s Yeah, what’s up with that?s My Little Princess is all gung-ho about helping decorate, but when it came down to putting everything away, she wanted nothing to do with it.s Hubby knows better than to help – he usually creates more work! LOL!! 😉 s Thanks so much for stopping by! 😀

  19. Hi Stacy.
    Last year I went out and bought a pre-lit tree.
    Made my life a lot easier this year 😀
    s
    I had a Sheltie puppy about 5 or 6 years ago. She only lived to about 2 1/2. She had a seizure and never came out of it. She was a bit too good looking for the rest of the famliy at the time anyway (we had a large mutt-lab).

  20. It’s always so nice to get it all put away again, isn’t it? I’m glad you finally got it done!

  21. Really, who buys a gold Christmas tree? I’ve never seen one displayed. I made it to the Target too late as well, just because after the holidays I was so over shopping. I didn’t want to see a store for at least two weeks myself. Jeesh. Have a great day. 😉

  24. Ohh yay for getting the tree down…believe it or not mine is still up…but lets not talk about it LOL
    s
    I love the necklace so cool 🙂

  25. My tree is still up and I just want tos SCREAM.s Everything is making me mad today!s ARGHHHHHHH

  26. Great post and I absolutely love that necklace! That is soooo nice!s Congrats on getting such an awesome gift.
    s
    I couldn’t wait to take down Christmas! So we did about two days after!

  29. Pre-lit trees do make life a bit easier, don’t they, Harriet? 😉 s Well, except when the tree starts to get ‘old’ like mine (if you can consider 5 or 6 years old…wonder if they age like in ‘dog years’? 😉 )
    s
    Awwww, your sheltie sounds like the original sheltie we had that passed about 5 years ago…he was only 5 and had epilepsy, so he was having lots of seizures.s In the end, no medication could keep him from going into the seizures and we had to have him put down.s That was one of the saddest things we’d ever had to do.s It also made us do significant research over the last 5 years before deciding if we want to take that chance again.s Apparently lineage is a huge deal, and the sheltie we had didn’t have the ‘right’ medical lineage – possibly came from a puppy mill (which we were completely unaware of, but in hindsight makes sense as to why he was being sold so cheap at a pet store, and why he had initial problems walking even though he was 4 months old when we got him).
    s
    That’s funny about your comment that your sheltie was ‘too good looking for the rest of the family’…LOL!!s They are kinda that way, aren’t they? 😉 s Mutts (including mutt-labs) are oh so cute, though!s And so loveable! 🙂
    s
    Thanks so much for stopping by! 🙂

  30. Yes, it definitely is nice to have it finally all put away…you don’t have the stress of it looming ahead of you and having to make time to take care of it!s Now I can ‘coast’ the rest of the week…(snicker!)s Actually, now I can focus on getting the house ‘puppy proof’ before Saturday! 😉 s Thanks so much for stopping by, Elizabeth! 😀

  31. I take it you had lots of problems with it, Leah?s Like the pre-lit lights burning out and leaving dark ‘stripes’ on your tree? 😉 s I did get one of those ‘Light Keeper Pro’ things that are supposed to work miracles on ‘fixing’ lights on pre-lit trees (and other pre-lit stuff, like my deer), and while I was lacking in confidence of it really working, I gotta tell you – it worked!s Had I not ruined my tree by plugging it into one of those ‘random timers’ (you know, the kind that turn lights on for a while, then off for a while, then on again…no set ‘time’, just random) I probably would have been able to use the Light Keeper Pro and not have so many lights burnt out at once.s But the timer created extra surges, and it blew out whole sections of lights instead of just one or two light bulbs that are easily replaced.s I learned my lesson – never plug my tree into a timer ever again! 🙂
    s
    Thanks so much for stopping by! 😀

  32. LOL!s Thanks, Pam!s At least it made its own special ‘pattern’…heh, heh!!
    s
    I love my bling, too! 😀
    s
    Thanks so much for stopping by! 🙂

  33. Hahahaha, Firefly!s We’re on opposite schedules – you beat me getting all your decorations up about a week before I finally did, and now I’ve beat you on the back end (um, that didn’t sound very good, did it? 😉 )s You’ll get it done eventually! 😉
    s
    Isn’t the necklace GREAT?s Kristen did a fabulous job making it for me! 😀 s Thanks so much for stopping by! 🙂

  34. Awwww!s I hope you end up having a better day!!s I had one of those weeks last week… 😉
    s
    Thanks a bunch for stopping by! 😀

  35. LOL quirkyloon!s Thanks for the compliments!
    s
    2 days after Christmas I was ready to take the decorations down…but Princess Nagger wanted me to wait until New Year…then I just kept not having the time (well, I kept not making the time to do it), so they stayed up a bit longer than I would have liked, but now it’s SO nice to have my house back to ‘normal’ again! 😉
    s
    Thanks so much for stopping by! 😀

  36. LOL Lazy Housewife! 😉 s There’s the way to avoid the stress and hassle…don’t decorate! 😉 s I go overboard every year, though this year since I was ‘late’ decorating, I only did about 3/4 of what I ‘normally’ do…still too much work, but since it makes the Princess Nagger happy, it makes me happy… 😉
    s
    Thanks so much for stopping by! 😀

  37. Oh, Kristen, I LOVE IT!! 😀 s You’re welcome for the ‘shout out’ – you definitely deserve it, and I will be a returning customer! 😉
    s
    Thanks so much for stopping by! 😀

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