The Christmas tree is up

Actually the tree's been up since last Friday but I kept forgetting to take a picture when I was home.

This year we've moved entirely to LED lights to substantially reduce our electricity usage, both on the tree and outside. (There's a "curtain" light string up behind the tree, visible in the picture, though, which is the old style of lights. Probably draws more power than the entire tree and outside lights combined.)

The outside lights are still around the garage door. Maybe one day I'll put some hooks up in the porch roof so I can hang them there. But it's way too high to get to.

Every year since we first got together 20 years ago, we've bought one special ornament, so that eventually the tree would be a pretty collection of unique ornaments. This started because we were too poor to buy nice ornaments when we started, but it also became a great tradition. Every year we put them up in chronological order and thus remind ourselves of the history, where we were each year. So far, in twenty years, we haven't broken a single one (except one of a set of four we bought in 1993, but we bought four instead of one explicitly so we could break one and still be okay). I know we will one day, it's inevitable, so I try to be prepared for it, but it makes me nervous. Especially the 2004 ornament. We've ordered this year's ornament but it's not here yet.