My process:
1. Decide on the location of the Christmas tree in the house, and rearrange furniture accordingly.
2. Set up tree stem and insert branches according to their respective levels.
3. Go around the tree and spread open the pine leaves.
4. Arrange the Christmas lights around the tree, ensuring even coverage of lights.
5. Ensure that the tree is standing straight before decorations go on.
6. Decide on the theme of the Christmas tree and organise decorations accordingly.
7. Sort ornaments and decorations according to types. Big and feature ornaments go first onto strategic spots. Smaller ornaments fill up gaps. Ensure all are evenly spaced when placed on the tree.
8. Finish up with the tree topper and walk around the tree again to ensure that tree is straight and even from all viewing angle.
Over the weekend, my kids pestered to "help" me put up the Christmas tree. I was harboring the hope that I'd do it myself in secret when they're asleep, but that hope just went 'poof'! They knew I'd skirt around the issue so they just went straight to daddy who brought out the the tree and decor at first ask.
I was shaking with anxiety when they put it up with the extra hand of Chloe's friend, Tiah. I heard Chloe telling Tiah that I like my ornaments evenly spaced, and I heaved a sigh of relief. Good they know what they're doing. Then in half an hour, they called out to let me know that they've finished. What?! That quick?! The anxiety came flooding back as I walked towards they lounge room. Hmmm :/ I bit my tongue as I praised them for their "good" work. Then I proceeded to nicely point out little things that needed to be corrected - tree is set up on the wrong spot (right in front of the door that leads to our yard), tree is leaning a little bit, tree topper is lopsided, tree branches weren't spread out, ornaments were all wrong in clumps and worst of all they forgot the lights.
As I corrected the "little" things, I then realised that I was slowly undoing what they've done. Feeling bad, I told daddy to take them out while I tidied up. Tiah must think that Chloe's mum is a Superfreak! Anyhow...three hours later and wa'la....
I've decided on a kiddy theme this year, considering that we've the addition of Baby Jordan. Everything on the tree reflects us as a family. Bright, colourful and happy. Brandon likes cutesy stuff, hence the X'mas caricatures, and suppose befitting for the baby in the house. The girly and glittery ornaments, like the butterflies and ballerinas and fairies are for my two girls. We've had this tree for ten years and I love it. All the ornaments are collections over this time and are meaningful to me.
ps. now that I'm looking closely at the photos, I noticed gaps at the bottom of my tree. Hmmm...need to buy more rainbow coloured ornaments to fill those in.
4 comments:
Want to borrow some snow from us?And the REAL smell of a christmas tree? -3 degrees centigrade at the moment!
Oh yes! Of course, nothing could beat a cold, wintery Christmas. It's hot and humid here in Darwin. Imagine a muggy and sticky Christmas. Yuck! I'd love to be in Hamburg right now. I can still remember the smell of the real Christmas tree at your place from 26 years ago :)
Pardon? 26 years!!!!!!!!!!!!!Make sure you and your family can make it here before I have to use a tongkat.The best time is not the weather but when the Euro is falling and the snow too!Last week we had from minus 3 to minus 6 degrees centtgrade and today plus 6.Many people think that the temperature in Hamburg is the same like maybe a place 50 km away from Hamburg.It is not so.To tell you the truth,I have no mood to decorate a christmas tree so I think it must be years now that I had seen or smelled one.Jeremy has one and I can go to his place to take a deep breath!
I can still remember what your Dad said to me,
1.Chong,how can you think in this cold,my brains are frozen!
2.Chong,since we are in Germany,let us travel to Scandinavia!(no way with me,my cosy home is my castle in winter).
3.Now I can understand why the europeans like to go for a walk and hug each other(the cold)!
And what you said," uncle Chong,your bathtub is so white one can also sleep in it!".After 26 years,it is still the same!The same with the National rice cooker from auntie Elizabeth from 1994.I think I'm living a live like a museum!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And what your Mum said to your Dad,"Chong had prohibited me from cooking in Hanburg!"
And Kenneth said,"uncle Chong,who taught you to cook?" He was watching me frying fried rice with canned sardines in oil/ginger/onions/garlic/beaten eggs.I answered,"the way you are doing now!".I wondered if he had understood me.
Then there was a loud thunder in winter???????,directed to your sailoh."Leh mo yiisii ah(don't kacau?).He vanished so fast like David Copperfield had cloaked him!!!!!!!!.Poor guy.Even had no time to tell the winter thunder,"Want to learn mah!".
And what did I said,"was für eine wunderbare Zeit!"(What a wonderful time!)
And what did I learn.Not to throw away the bones from the golden Gans(goose), so that I can make delicious kiam chai soup from it.And if I was a bit more hardworking,I could had crushed the left out bones to create a Bio fertilizer for my plants,re-cycling made in Pandamaran(stucked in the mud town!?).
Stuck in the mud was a name given by my cousin Hock Seng because we had no tarry road leading to our homes in Pandamaran village.But he meant the "brains".So when any vehicles coming into our territory,they would be stucked in the mud.The whole villagers would come out to see this event like Justin and Usher is in town,these ulu guys!Even when my siblings play loud music and start to dance,these ulus,would gather in front of our home to stare at us like we were the monkeys in a zoo.And we were too naive to collect money from them.
"stuck in the mud",is not a silly sentence.In the battle of Stalingrad and lately 2 or 3 years ago,the Phillipine marines had to even "bite the dust" when their artillery were "stucked in the mud".Only if their generals were as smart as me to check out the weather report for a week in advance in Yahoo for that particular area,nothing would had happened.You see going to universities is not a guarantee to stay alive,we also need common sense!
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