Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree --


Oh bother! I enjoy decorating for the season in spurts.  I like to spread it out.  Today it is the tree.  I don't really like putting it up too early because if I do by the time Christmas gets here it is very scraggly looking and nothing is more annoying than a scraggly looking Christmas tree.

With that said, I must admit that I will never have a tree that looks like it was done professionally.  Ever.  Why?  Because I still delight in the kids ornaments.  I still like the ones I inherited from my mom that have yellowed with age.  I still like the idea of it being ordinary.

However, I have spent the last couple of hours (3 to be exact) trying to get this tree decorated.  A couple of years ago we purchased a new tree that is really tall (exciting for a short one like me) and narrow -- fits in the corner really well.  But......it looks like I stood back and threw the ornaments at the middle.  It is tall, I am not, there isn't much up there.  I can't bend down well because of gimpy knees so there isn't much low so -- yeah, the middle looks - crowded.

It is all my daughter's fault.  She always loved decorating the tree --to the point that she was so OCD about it nobody helped her -- we all just left her to it and it always turned out fine.  She got married.  She moved. Now she has her own tree to do and has left me to my own devices.

It is not pretty.

I found myself googling "how to decorate a Christmas tree".  Really?  How sad.  There has got to be a formula to this.  I wonder if there is a "Christmas Tree Decorating for Dummies" book out there?

Ok, enough of the rant.  Back to the project -- hopefully it will be done before bedtime!

Agatha Raisin and the Terrible Tourist


I just finished reading this title in the Agatha Raisin series and I have to say it wasn't my favorite.  Now, I didn't dislike it enough to give up on it  but I didn't like it as much as I have the others.  I don't know if it was the setting or what but it seemed like there wasn't as much plot and an awful lot of driving around North Cyprus. 

At any rate, I will still recommend the series and they are really fun to read and I hope that the next one is better.  Maybe I just need a break and should go back and read one of the Nancy Atherton Aunt Dimity series. 

Or, maybe I should read "Animal Farm" -- my daughter is reading it for her class right now and I have never read it so maybe I will give it a go.  I still need a couple of books to meet my 2014 Reading Challenge so I need some small books -- maybe children's books? I think I could just about manage two of those!