O Tannenbaum

This weeks Flashback (forward) Friday's prompt:

When you were growing up, when did your family put up and decorate the Christmas tree? Was it real or artificial? Who usually decorated it? Were there special decorations? What was on the top? White lights or colored, blinking or steady? How much did your family decorate for the holiday other than the tree (wreaths, dishes, snowglobes, miniature villages, etc.)? Did y'all do outdoor lights? White or colored, blinking or not? Are there special memories associated with decorating for Christmas?

Yay for Christmas!! The most memorable memory would be setting up the Caroler's with my grandmother.

My grandmother loved these caroler's, they always went out in the same spot every year on her coffee table thing. It was only last year, eight years after my grandmother died, that my grandfather allowed Mom & I to take them up to our house and put them up. So this year the Caroler's were the first Christmas items up in the house :) I love putting the Caroler's up, not only because they are just awesome, but because they remind me of my grandmother. It was actually surprising when Bro #1 didn't remember the Caroler's or putting them up! That was a huge part of being with Grandma during Christmas time!

As a family we always go out tree hunting, which with my father can take all day! For example last year, Dad, Bro #1, and I went out Christmas tree hunting, while Mom was at work. We went to 7 different tree farms, spent all day looking, and contemplated driving down to CT twice, doesn't that sound like fun?! Once we get the perfect tree, which has to be rounded properly, not too tall, and has to be a specific type. A type that seems to be unknown in MA >:O So once the tree is up and is perfectly straight we can start decorating it. We put the white lights on it first, and that has to be perfect also, one that is done we can put the ornaments, which have to be spaced and be around the tree evenly, and have to look perfect (have you caught the word perfect?). After that then we get to do tinsel, which is practically illegal in MA to buy we learned this last year, anyways the tinsel have to look perfect and there can't be any clumps on a branch what not and Armageddon might come, and we wouldn't want that to happen, right? Oh and we can't forget the angel that we've had since 1812! That goes on the top, by the time that everything is done and the tree is watered. We're all so tired!

Cae