It's finally here!

What? Advent! It's time for Christmas shopping, music, crafting and of course, decorating! In the marvelous family, "Black Friday" is a time to decorate Mom and Pop's for the holiday. We did even better than we have recently this year: we set up the tree, put it in position, and covered it with lights, garland and ornaments. Yes! I actually came home to my apartment late that day and then the "decorating the apartment" portion of the weekend set in. I had some cleaning to do first, so it took a little extra time. But, it's finally 'bout done and I'm ready to share!

Most of my work was concentrated in the living room, and you can see just about all of it in this photo. I'm still rocking the short little tree I inherited from my grandma. When placed atop a popcorn can, atop a 4 unit Expedit, it's almost tall enough for the space. As much as I'm looking forward to acquiring a full-sized tree, it sure is easy easy easy to set this one up. It wears a dry cleaning bag during the off-season. So, come Thanksgiving, all I have to do is wiggle the tree free of the bag and it's ready to go. Oh and while it wasn't designed as pre-lit, Grandma put lights on with clips, so the lights just go right along inside the dry cleaner's bag.

I hung my stockings right below the window so Santa can drop off the presents easily!

I've got company coming this year during the Christmas season, so I decided to use my Norwegian heart garland.

This is what it looks like, proudly displayed on the carpeting. I bet you can tell, from your little corner of the internet, that this garland is a gigantic pain to deal with. The "garland" is actually string that connects the hearts together. I have a total of two strands, and the one pictured above is definitely tangled on the right hand side of the photo. Bummer. But, I decided to go for it anyways.

One reason I'm looking forward to the chance to have a larger tree is that this one is overwhelmed by all of my ornaments. Seriously - all the branches at the bottom have more than one ornament on them. Oh well - it's extra festive, right?

I also set up my little tiny tree. I'm not sure why the Expedit it sits on is looking shiny, but it isn't. I don't think I've bought any ornaments for this little tiny since I graduated from college - in 2006. It seems to me like each and every one of these ornaments, even the ones I don't like that well, are treasured friends that are coming out at Christmas time.

Here's the last shot - ho ho ho! Merry Christmas from my home to yours!