For a bit of excitement this winter, I went to Target and bought a fake tree. It was much more complicated to put together than I had anticipated. I was inspired to put a tree up because Ikea has some new colorful tree decorations that I just had to have. I love Ikea.



It looks very festive and cheery. I think I need to go and get some more lights though, because I have the blue ones at the top and they are not as bright as the red and green ones. Target has an amazing selection of Christmas lights. The Christmas light technology is so advanced now! There are pearl lights, and button lights, and dewdrop lights, LED lights, and even crazy light tubing. When I am richer I will buy the fancy lights, but for now it is the regular plain old ones for $1.89 a box, although now they come in solid color strings so I guess that is a little exciting.

I am leaving the tree up until my SAD goes away or until the cats eat the entire thing, whichever comes first. This is the first year in 11 years that we have had a tree, and even our old crotchety cats are quite infatuated with all its sparkly excitement. Poor tree. Its chances aren't looking good.



Since it was the first time I actually bought holiday stuff for us, I was very overwhelmed by all the things I had to chose from. There were a million different kinds of everything imaginable. In my shopping euphoria I even bought a $30 tree skirt even though a cheapo $5 red felt one would have covered up the fake base of the fake plastic tree just fine. What a good consumer I am. And I do not need a table runner, but I had debated over which one I liked the best and put it in my cart before I realized this. Everything is so shiny and glittery and colorful. I love the colors. And they even make elaborate pet costumes! Not that I would ever, ever buy something like that, that is completely crazy and nutso and only really weird people do that stuff.