I just love Paula Deen!

I just can't get over how much Paula Deen makes me laugh out loud on her shows. Not only do I love her cookin, but there is just something about her sense of humor that reminds me of my Aunt Peggy, and I just love remembering how much my own Aunt Peggy made us laugh growing up in Alabama. We got the tree up today. What a pain in the royal butt that was! You would have to understand the whole story to realize why. Last year, because I was insistint on not spending too much money at Christmas, I decided to get a fake tree with lights. This is almost sacrilige at my house, but it was a gorgeous tree, in the store, and I was determined not to pay another $50-80 bucks for a tree. So, I bought it. Last year, it was fabulous, but taking it apart was a nightmare. The store had pre-wired the branches, so it was nearly impossible to get apart into three sections, like it was supposed to. We ended up taking the top off and moved the other two, dangling sections to storage like it had been decapitated. I knew then, that putting that tree back up this year would pe difficult, but I completely underestimated how much so. My son, who is now driving, drove me to the storage unit and managed to get that crazy tree in the car. When we arrived home, only one out of the 8 set of lights worked, who knows why, and 4 branches were busted and wouldn't hold up, who knows why. He set it up out front and we attempted to get the lights off to replace them. Ugh! I was ready to torch that sucker and he was screaming for the matches, but we held on. I was able to get the triple wound light strands off the bottom section after about 2 hours, and I'm not kidding, so after a few horrible thoughts about this tree and several non mentionable words, I decided to cut the rest of those lights right off that tree. It was a hoot! I have never had so much fun cutting and trimming those crazy lights, it was like they were alive and I was getting them back for being such a pain in the butt to get off. I filled two grocery bags with little snips of white lights, and took two days to recover from the ordeal. I then realized I had to re-string new lights which made me just ill. So, I dug out our colored lights, began neatly stringing them, but was so exhausted and fed up with Christmas at this point I broke the most cardinal rule at our house. I hung the lights north to south instead of around and around. I could have been hung for this fo paux, ha ha, but I managed to make it look pretty swell, and you really can't tell they are so screwed up. I then dug out my "Fresh Tree Scented" candle and lit that baby up. So, I'm whipped, and there is only one ornament so far on that plastic tree in our corner and it will most likely take me a few days to get up the energy to hang the rest, but hang I will. All in all, it's a pretty tree, but there isn't anything that says Christmas as a fresh Fraser tree with all that sap, and I miss it. So next year I just might swallow my pride and splurge, once again for that sap filled sweet smellin tree, just so it feels like Christmas once again.
I haven't been able to finish my Christmas painting because of the nerve in my neck, and I am hoping it will settle down so I can finish by the end of the holiday. The botox didn't work, and I am back to dealing with it on a daily basis, but that's ok. I see my knee surgeon on Monday morning. We are not sure when the surgery will happen at this point, but I have high hopes that a new knee will be a turning point for me physically. I'll have to ask Santa for that one. I do want to wish everyone a great Christmas holiday, from my artsy-fartsy self to yours. Peace!