Oh Christmas Tree

I put up our Christmas tree today.  It looks the same as it does every year.  The tree is about 21 years old.  It belonged to my grandmother, and I believe she bought it the year my grandfather died.  I "inherited" it about nine or ten years ago.  It's been around.  My decorations have been around too.  Some of them are from my childhood.  And my flashy silver garland has been with me even longer than the tree has.  I think I bought it in college, so let's say about 1997, since I don't think I put up a tree in 1996.  My lights are about five or six years old.  They're rope-style, clustered, coloured mini lights.

It's a tacky tree.  It doesn't have the pretty ribbons and clear lights that so many people decorate their trees with these days.  Martha Stewart, or whoever the currently worshipped decorator is, would be appalled at it.  But it's my tree.  And it will be BB's tree too.  And because I don't expect it to be perfection, I'll be happy to let him help decorate it when he's big enough.  And I won't follow him around and rearrange all of the ornaments.  

This year, since BB is still very young, he sat on the living room floor and watched it go up.  He just started sitting up on his own this week, without needing us to be right there in case he topples over.  Yesterday was definitely the turning point for him.  So today I plunked him on the floor with some toys, and a couple pillows behind him, to break his fall, just in case.  He totally didn't need the pillows.  He sat square on his behind and watched the entire tree go up.  In fact, he barely touched his toys, he was so interested in what I was doing.  I ended up picking him up before he even thought of falling over.  

I'm always singing songs to BB.  I get tired of constatly babbling to him, so I often sing children's songs.  I tried to sing Oh Christmas Tree to him while I was putting up the tree, and realized that I don't know the words beyond, "Oh Christmas Tree."  Whoops.  I'm sure once I get some Christmas tunes cranked it will all come back to me!  

I've been listening to the CBC for the past week during the days.  I always used to make fun of people who listen to the CBC.  Now I'm one of those people.  I have become tired of listening to the same songs over and over again on the stations here in town.  It seems that they play one song I like, two I'm okay with, and then five that I can't stand.  So I decided to give the CBC a try.  And it's interesting.  And I'm learning lots.  Today while I was putting up the tree they did a call-in show where people could share some of their favourite Christmas food memories.  It was great.  And since I haven't dug out the Christmas tunes yet, it helped me to feel Christmassy while putting up the ol' tree!

So what does the ol' tree look like anyway?  Well, I'll try to post my first pic ever on here so you can see... (I tried two different settings on my camera.  I'm just getting around now to learning a few things about the settings about it.)

Note:  Edited to upload resized pictures.  Live & learn.  :)