Christmas tree decorating in real life has always been a journey from joyful camaraderie to aggrieved frustration and back again. My family decorated a 17-foot tree and I decorated to top from the balcony off my bedroom while Mom and Dad decorated from below. This would not be so difficult, really, except Mom would get exercised if two ornaments of similar color were in proximity. It’s not that there were identical decorations since there were so many different ornaments, but a pink vintage ornament next to a pink modern ornament was not okay. The tinsel had to be individually draped placed, no tossing! But in the end it was always fun after the defective bulbs were identified and replaced, the tinsel evenly balanced, and the colors distributed with the precision of a drill team.

When I moved to Oregon, I had the brilliant idea of getting my own tree and chose the aromatic Western Red Cedar. It was beautiful! Until I tried to put an ornament on it, then the branch sagged and the ornament slid off. It had no oomph! I had to tie every ornament on the tree. A lot of work, but it sure did smell great. This tree from moss&mink at The Arcade was so much easier. Now if I could just rez it in my real life living room.
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