It's this time of year/ Everyone is getting ready for Christmas and all the Christmas traditions begin. These days, my husband and I have a couple of traditions. At the beginning of December we put up the Christmas tree. This can only be done if Christmas Carols are playing, of course! We have about five CDs of songs and have made up a brilliant Christmas songs playlist. There are hours of joy, right there!
Now, my sister used to accuse me of being the Christmas Tree nazi because I wanted things just so, but my husband is worse than I am! Tinsel is not allowed on the tree. It can be draped over hooks, or across bookcases, but it does not belong on a tree.
So with that ascertained, the lights have to go on. There's the obligatory check to see if they're working, changing the bulbs that need to be changed and untangling the wire. When he is happy with the placement we can start with the decorations.
Over the years I have collected a lot of ornaments, some of my favourite ones are from the Christkindlmarkts in Germany. I love those Christmas markets and one day I'm going to go back and buy up big!
But by far, my favourite ornament has to be Emerson, the book worm. I think my mum gave it to me and my husband named him. Every year he is careful to give Emerson some light to read by, by sticking one of the tree lights through the back window of his house.
We also have a singing Christmas tree which was our late dog, Banjo's favourite Christmas item. When you push a button it moves and sings, "Rocking around the Christmas Tree..." Banjo would watch it fascinated and then when it stopped singing, and we'd stopped watching, he would carefully grab the tree off the coffee table and run away with it!
When my other dog, Tilly was a puppy, she would 'accidentally' kick her ball under the tree so she had to go under and get it. She was also prone to try and rearrange the low hanging baubles, by taking them off and having a chew, but luckily we were able to stop that habit.
When my husband is happy with the balance and spacing of all the ornaments, we can sit down and get on with the next tradition - but more of that next week.
What Christmas traditions do you have?
