..and good morning Wyldflower
~waves~

~waves~ to Ceashel
Good morning world

'morning everyone. Dark, cold, snowy here in central PA. A good day for hanging out on ArloNet or curling up with a good book. May I recommend a book called "They Called it Paradise" by David Eklund.
www.dteklund.com

<center><FONT COLOR="#000080">--- Edited 1 times, lastly by Terrie on Dec 05, 2003 ---</FONT></center>

good morning Terrie
Cold and sunny with a bit of snow on the ground

Somebody call Ashcroft! The snow has crossed the Canadian border and is on the way to N.J........without a green card!!!! Sparky, get a lawyer!<img src="http://www.arlo.net/ubb/smilies/eek.gif" width=15 height=15>

I didn,t do it man..I think Leone of the north is sending it through
~waves~ to Wyldflower

~~Waves~~ to Sparkydon on this board, and to Ceashel and to Larry, who are hanging around on the main board, talking bout chickens and such. (Big Bird?)

((((((((Blunderfriends))))))))

Good morning to Cliffite and Larry and anyone else who blunders in
My thoughts on winter:
Is it almost done yet???

~~Waves~~ back to Sparkydon...Hi to Larry (who doesn't seem to wave) ~~Waves~~ to Ceashel... Good morning to blunderites everywhere! You in the snow...be safe and warm!!!

Good morning to all and ~~waves~~ to SparkyDon and Larry and Cliffite! Sounds like Blundercicle time again. We were just saying to each other, we'v never seen the Church in snow...sure would like to sometime. Too late to catch a plane in now; the airports are closed. Oh, well...

What Cliffite said--stay warm!

It's absolutely freezing here, and that's just inside the house! I got my very first "Tree" and have no clue how to decorate it... I have tiny white lights and some silver tinsel. We tried to put the fluffy tinsel-gardland on it last night and I don't think we did such a good job of it.

Any help would be appreciated!

Terrie (first time tree decorator)

Wow... an adventure!

One thing you should know is that no matter what it looks like, the tree will be beautiful!

Now since this is my first year NOT putting up a tree, thanks for the chance to do some virtual decorating. (I'm in a small apartment, and i'll be having a Yule Log arrangement, which I'll put on the bonfire at an upcoming drum circle gathering after New Year.)

Here's how I usually decorate the tree...

You start out by putting some holiday music on the stereo and pouring a glass of eggnog.

So, then .. first the lights... there are those who wind the light strings around the tree, from top to bottom or bottom to top.. this has a tendency to make me dizzy, and I get tangled up in the wires, so I'm of the "up and down" school of tree lights. Don't string them at the very ends of the branches cos they get in the way of other stuff and the wires arent' that pretty to begin with... try to push some of the lights deeper into the branches, to make the inside of the tree glow, too... (more eggnog, to make me glow, too)

Then i put the garland on... unless i'm using the tinsel icicles. Icicles go on after the ornaments. (you can't find the old fashioned aluminum kind, which is the best... better than the mylar stuff that tends to static electric attraction to me... I usually do the garland in a top to bottom around and around fashion.. in which i usually get entangled (along with the lights and the icicles).... umm is my cup empty? more eggnog!

So after you're lit and garlanded, it's time for balls... you know the glass or plastic or satin ones for the tree.. lol. Basically I just use the "empty space rule" which is .. wherever there is an empty space between branches, put an ornament there. Of course the empty space rule applies to my brain, too, so I usually end up with an ornament or two hanging from my glasses..... and there's an empty space in my cup... head on over to the eggnog!

So ... now you should have lights, garland, and ornaments... If you are opting for icicles, now is the time for these... I try to drape them from the tips of each branch.. one or two strands... until I get tired of doing that, at which time I throw the whole package up in the air, in the general direction of the tree. What sticks to the tree stays... what doesn't... oh well.... just make sure you pull the tinsel out of your cup before pouring more eggnog!

Then, to hide all the tinsel that ended up on the floor under the tree, i put the tree skirt on... the one i have is a circle with a "slice" so I just have to wrap it around...

Then I step back and take a look ... wow... another successful decorating project! We did well... let's have some eggnog to celebrate!

How I do mine is I use several sets of colored chaser lights as my basic lights. I have each set setup to blink a different way. Next I put on there several sets of these smaller type teardrop or pinecone shaped lights. On the boxes I think they called them teardrop or multi faceted. I use the colored ones as the white lights aren't too Christmasy looking. Next I put on bubble lights on the bottom of the tree on up to the middle. Then after that I put on these candle lights that look like small Christmas candles & have them going from the upper midddel of the tree all the way to the top. Lots of lights but so pretty & it isn't Christmas without my chaser lights, bubble lights & candle lights. I put colored beaded garland on the tree. Then last I put on my ornaments. Most of them athte old fashione glass ornqaments that are colored & have designs on them like the center of the ornament scooped out looking with colored stuff in it. I grew up with those kinda amentorns so those are my favorites. this yr we gotta new tree cuz my folks bought them a new tree & decided not to use it cuz it would be too much trouble for them to move it when they move to a subdivision in our area thats for old people next yr. So since out old tree was getting kinda lopsided & we needed a new one, they gave it to us. Now we gotta get on the beaded garland & the ornaments. The decorate under the trrr which we do with an alpin scene, manger scene & part of an old west set that Mike ahd & some Santa Clauses. Enjoy your decorating folks! <img src="http://www.arlo.net/ubb/smilies/smile.gif" width=15 height=15>

Sorry about the typos. This laptop wants to move LOL!

I remember when I first got to decorate my first tree, it was Six Christmas's ago and I've done it the same every year, because christmas decorations are very expencive. But what wildflower said about the lights is the best way to start, though I'm not too sure about all the Eggnog, even when not pregnant, I would opt for the Bourbon <img src="http://www.arlo.net/ubb/smilies/smile.gif" width=15 height=15>

Any how, I've always done mine in Gold which looks nice, though instead of tinsel garlands or strings I use strings of little gold beads, then gold bows at the end of the branches, then I hang balls, then stars, then my big star on top.

It looks really good when I've done, then I hang Green garlands from the picture rails with beads and ribbon, they tend to be the hardest, as soon as you've hung one end the other falls down. But the way I would like to do my tree isn't really practical when you have children, it tends to get looked upon as one big snack! Even though it's not edable. Instead of tinstel or beads, string popcorn on the branches, then instead of hanging balls and stars and such, silce-dry and glaze oranges and hang those with ribbon, and tie gold thread round chestnuts and hang those on too. Make star shaped biscuts leaving a hole in the top and ice those and hang them on the tree. Remember to collect pine cones in the Autumn and hang some of those on there too. It's the way the Victorians Decorated their trees, I saw a picture of one once and it looked so nice, but like I said when you have Kids, it would just get looked upon as one big snack.

Good Luck with your tree, and have fun, to you and every one decorating trees and houses.

And A Very GOOD MORNING.
<img src="http://www.arlo.net/ubb/smilies/peace.gif" width=16 height=16>