It's Christmas time in the city ...

I have finally put up the Christmas tree in our living room. And since it is rather humongous in size, I really can't put it anywhere else other than under the stairs, as it has been for the past two years. I was supposed to buy a smaller one but when I went back for it that weekend, it was already out of stock! I didn't want a smaller one, so I took this tree.

Whoops! Looks like I underestimated the size! As you may have noticed, the tree goes way up into the ceiling! There's a crevice underneath the staircase, so the tip of the tree rests nicely in that little hideaway. My wife actually asked me where we were going to put the star. Was that a trick question? Perhaps at the top of the staircase then? Hmmmm ....

As a kid, putting up the Christmas tree was always memorable. Our tree then was only 1/4 the size of what I have right now. And prior to the "pine tree look" trend, our original Christmas tree that only had thin strips of twisted aluminum for branches, and everything was aluminum. We'd wedge it into a can with stones in it and decorate the can itself with Christmas wrapping paper. And then we had these plastic ornaments that looked like chinese lamps. I remember we'd cut strips of colored paper, interloop them up then paste two ends and voila! A nice garland for the tree. We also hanged candy canes and assorted sweets, which invariably disappear faster than you can say, "holy guacamole!". Our parents didn't mind what we hung on it, which made it really fun. We even made our own Christmas lanterns out of Japanese paper and bamboo sticks!

From our home to yours, advance Merry Christmas!