Well, I am excited to say that our tree, after a week in our house “au natural”, finally got lights!  I of course had the usual difficulty with half a strand out, all of a strand out, and then the ONE SMALL part of a strand that decides to BLINK!  At one point my poor daughter Lauren asked me what she could do to help and I said “Just make it STOP!!”.  Eventually I found the guilty red bulb and got it all fixed.  (After running to Walmart to buy additional lights of course!)

I really enjoy decorating the tree with the kids, but I hate the lights!  My friend Miriam is the light pro.  She wraps the lights around each branch lighting up the interior as well.  One day, I’m going to get a lesson!  It always makes her trees look PERFECT! I’ve also heard that you should put on 100 strands for every foot as well. Here’s a site that tells you how to do the lights.  They say VERTICAL!  Hmmm… maybe I should take them all off?  :-)  Yeah, right.  Maybe next year.

http://www.realsimple.com/realsimple/package/0,21861,1809928-1016034,00.html