
Once again, I left its acquisition a little late. The problem is that I don't feel "Christmassy" until around Gaudete Sunday. The tradition in my family was to decorate the tree on Christmas Eve - but my mother bought the tree some time before that, and left it outside until the big day. But that's just not possible for me now.
I therefore nearly had to resort to another dwarf Alberta Spruce, as I couldn't find any "proper" Christmas trees. Finally a sales assistant in one shop brought out their last potted Blue Spruce with a slightly embarrassed air. It was easy to see why the tree hadn't been bought by anyone else: it was seriously lopsided and had several "bald" branches. It was such a sorry sight that the assistant even offered to reduce the price...
Once home, I trimmed the branches a bit and positioned the tree carefully so the lopsidedness was less apparent. Then I unearthed my collection of Christmas decorations. Cardinal Furretti demonstrated a keen interest in tinsel and had to be discouraged from batting at the baubles. Monsignor Miaowrini, on the other hand, was fast asleep.
Unfortunately I seemed to have lost my tree lights... I tried to find a small set of white lights, but the only ones available seemed to be coloured (or in strings of 100 or more; way too many lights for my tiny tree!)
After a couple of days without lights, I decided that blue lights were better than no lights, and so went out and bought some.
It's now Christmas Eve, and I've said Vespers. As I'm going to have a short nap before going out to Midnight Mass, I have put the baby into the Crib and positioned my wise men across the room, ready to start their travels...
Here's wishing all my readers a very happy Christmas!