Santa’s pitiful little helper

We finally decorated our tree last night!  I mentioned yesterday how a section of lights at the top was out, and I was really dreading taking that whole section down to replace, so I made the executive decision that I’d just redistribute the lights at the top to fill in the gaps.  I’m lazy classy like that. 



Please disregard the pile of old t-shirts in the lefthand corner.  But you can’t now that I’ve brought them to your attention.  Awesome.



Santa’s pitiful little helper.  I wanted to buy her a Christmas sweater from Target, but A) I don’t need to be wasting money on something like that, and B) they were out of her size anyway.  A Christmassy green t-shirt did a good enough job, though. 


For dinner last night, I made Mom and me Taco-Less Taco Salads.



Back to the icky flash…sorry, y’all.  I had a bunch of romaine lettuce to which I added some rotisserie chicken we got on sale, some scallions and red bell pepper, a few spoonfuls of salsa, and a dollop of FF sour cream.  I added green Tobasco to the top of mine. 




I tweeted last night about wanting some red wine (which is sooo not on my plan), and Nicci asked me to enjoy some for her, too.  Mom and Dad had just opened the table wine a few days ago that we got for Halloween, and the bottle was upstairs.  The glasses were downstairs.  I knew I’d pour too much if I actually poured into a glass, so straight from the bottle it was.  Nicci, this is for you.  I had a sip for myself and a sip for you. 


We have two trees in our house – the main one in our great room has multicolored lights and all our sentimental family ornaments, and Mom has a tree with white lights and white and gold ornaments in our formal living room – y’know, the room nobody ever goes in, the one where you keep all the boxed-up stuff that used to be in the kitchen before it was gutted?  Yeah, that room.  We keep on doing it because you can see that tree from the road, and it makes us seem more normal if we show evidence of Christmas cheer to passers-by.  We haven’t put that tree up yet, but our family tree is almost fully-decorated.  On it, we have picture ornaments…





…handmade-in-preschool ornaments…



…and Hallmark ornaments that say a lot about my character…






 



I love our tree. 


So far today, I spent way too much money at Hallmark and walked empty-handed out of 2 retail stores and 2 grocery stores.  I’m frustrated, but I’ll try again online and in other places on Monday.  I was ravenous by the time I got home and made The Most Boring Lunch Ever in the History of Eating.  Amen.



The last of the pork tenderloin + dijon mustard + a pile of green beans.  I shouldn’t make fun – it did the trick. 

Tonight I’m headed back to my grandmother’s for the night, but this time Mom is tagging along.  Every year, her church puts on a Christmas concert where the choir sings from risers built into a giant Christmas tree.  Over the years, the church has gotten HUGE and the performance has gotten more complex.  They do little vignettes between songs, and it’s really a good performance.  It’s close to my family’s collective heart because, besides my uncle and his sisters and niece singing in it, my grandfather always designed and helped build the Christmas tree risers, and my aunt and grandmother always installed the greenery.  The year he passed away, they dedicated the performance to his memory, and they still credit him in the program for the set design.  None of us can sit through a performance without shedding a few happy tears for the legacy he left behind.

I hope you all have had a wonderful Friday and have an even more wonderful-er weekend!