Christmas tree

Yesterday morning, we decided to bring the Christmas tree inside the house so that it would be inside in preparation for decorating today. The weather forecast was for rain and wind, so we thought we should bring it in just in case.

Sure enough, the rain came last night pretty hard, and the wind blew some although not as much as predicted. Anyway, this morning we set about decorating the tree, which is something of a ritual with us. Together, we strung the lights, only to come up a little short so I had to make an emergency trip to Kellogg's Hardware in Duck or another string. The lights were on and looking pretty good, so Hilda started unpacking the ornaments. She carefully packs the ornaments, many in their original packages, and wrapped in tissue after the Christmas season, so unpacking them is another ritual.

According to tradition, the "Merry Christmas" ball is the first to be hung on the tree, then the rest follow. Our decorating styles differ a lot. Hilda is very methodical and thoughtful about the placement of each ornament, whereas I tend to just place them randomly in any spot that seems to be available. Overall, I think it worked out pretty well.

The sky cleared this afternoon, and the temperature started to drop, and now it's blowing pretty hard outside, so I guess the forecast is going to be right after all.