Decking the (freaking) Halls

So it seems that I have completely glossed over Thanksgiving. While this is mostly true, we did have an excellent Thanksgiving with Dan's brother and wife, Mike and Sarah. We had a great meal, thanks to my chef-brother, Kyle. We visited the beach, did some early A.M. shopping, and enjoyed each other's company as we fought to the finish with a fan favorite game, Pop 5.

To much of my dismay, Christmas is fast approaching and I am not ready, to say the least. I even tried to talk Dan into not putting up the tree until Christmas Eve as a "surprise" for Riley, but really a sanity saver for me. I can only take so much of, "Don't touch that," in one day.

So, needless to say, Dan decorated the outside and the inside duties are usually left to me. I guess Dan could see I wasn't in the Ho-Ho mood this year so he busted out the decorations the morning of his parents departure from a weekend visit. Richard, Dan's Dad (who by the way, also goes by Dick - a name that Riley grew quite fond of saying - awesome) had an epiphany - Why don't you find a way to rotate the tree so you can stand in one place and put the lights on? That's all Dan needed to hear - he was off to find an apparatus in the garage. He soon returned with a rolling platform he used when working on his old car, the Explorer, aka The Exploder.

So there I am - laying on the floor, rotating the tree while Dan hangs the lights. After a little while, I had to give me arms and boobs a break, since they were all going numb, and switched jobs with Dan. And let's face it, I'm better at hanging up lights anyways...

Here is a snapshot of the process. I think we should use this on our Christmas card....