some assembly required

I've been out-and-about singing holiday concerts with the community choir quite a bit lately, and we've still got another week left.

Today was really one of my only "free" days to put up the Christmas tree.

After running a 15K (9.3 miles) race this morning, taking a two-hour nap, finalizing my "performance" for tomorrow's Blogger Christmahanukwanzaakah Online Holiday Concert and making chili, I was ready to begin the task.

I'm going to buy a new tree after they go on sale. This is why:

Aside from the annoyance of having to insert and reform each branch to make it look like it hasn't been shoved back in the box all year, it's not a terrible tree. I just want one that's more user-friendly.

I assume those brown things are supposed to be pine cones, and not dead branches.

After wrestling with five strands of lights (you need a lot of lights to make a fake tree look decent!), I had enough for the night. Ornaments to come later!