....As Visions of a Foot Massage Dance in Her Head....

I had to take a break and sit down to rest my aching legs and feet. We just finished eating a roast chicken dinner and I am taking a break before I go clean up the kitchen.

Today I put up my large Christmas tree. All that climbing up and down the basement stairs and from chair to chair to reach the top of tree has left me pretty much exhausted. I put chairs all around the tree so I can walk completely around it to string lights and do the top.



There is a reason for my pre-season madness (other than I really do like Christmas trees). Every year I do mine very early so that I get them done before I do the trees at work. I like to do my own when I still have the energy and spirit. Once I finish all the trees at work, I don't want to see another Christmas tree for a long time!

I won't actually light mine until the day after Thanksgiving.

I usually do three trees in my home (more if you count the 2 or 3 little 2-ft trees I usually put on top of the china cabinets). I will do the other two during the week.

I did the main tree in a gingerbread theme (surprise, surprise). I used white lights, with a touch of red and gold. The gold lights are very hard to distinguish from white lights once they are all lit. I am glad to get it done as my countertops were getting pretty cluttered with all the ornaments I made during the past two weeks.

So here is what I did with all the little crafts I have shown you over the past two weeks:



And here it is with the lights on:



A closer view of the top. A friend from work made the wooden candy canes for me quite a few years ago. They make a great tree top. I have used them often with different centers. I added some tree branches to give more dimension and texture.




I also put little picture frames with pictures of my son's childhood Christmases on the tree. Nothing to do with the gingerbread theme, but every tree must hold some of your precious memories.