A Turtle fight to get her Christmas Tree up

So , here I was , determined to write a post today , feeling a little better after fighting my sniffles and cough and marble head (yes , it weighs like a ton , and it’s marbleized – as in thoughts can’t get through ) .

But then I got stopped in my tracks by this amazing post that I had to read several times over and reblog here , and it is oh so true , that it made me cry my eyes out , and rendered me again unable to write ( either I’m sniffling or crying it seems ) .

Better now , I just wanted to share with you that I fulfilled my wish of having my Christmas Tree up on the 8th , and not on Christmas Eve like last year or never getting it up like the year before ( bad times , hopefully gone for now ) .
Round One  – Turtle : 1 point /  The Grinch that wants to steal my Christmas 0 ( zero , nil , nada) .

All the time I was growing up we did have this tradition on my side of the family of setting out the Christmas Decorations on December the 8th.

There were several reasons for this , the first one being that it is a National Holiday – Holy Mary’s Day (Immaculate Conception) – so a non working day and we also celebrated Mother’s Day on this date (before we went globalized and changed it to May) .
It was a family day to be together and pause and prepare for the coming Christmas . In a more practical note , we used to have fresh live Christmas Trees and if we wanted them to last inside , up until the 6th of January (Kings Day or The Three Wise Man Day) we couldn’t have them for longer than 5 weeks.

So , after the non-Christmas of the last years , and as part of my determination that the One will not destroy me any further , I had it in my mind : Christmas Tree Up on Dec 08. And I did it !  The Turtle dances here 😉

Bad cold (is there a good one ?) , boxes down in the far end of the basement , with tons of stuff piled in front of them , and have I told you already how scared I am of ants (well of anything resembling an insect really) ?

Got over all that , hauled the boxes upstairs to the living room , started looking around and thought …umm …  let’s change things around a bit , maybe the tree would look really good  right there in front of the window .

Piece of cake , just move the sofa that is right there smack in front of the window ( and smack and stuck to the floor this gigantic 5-seater old heavy thing was – I am alone in the house by now but I want to move this thing so move I did – with only a few bruises , but I make those very easily anyway , am always covered in them  for one reason or the other , and this was a good reason ) .
To move the sofa and make space for the tree everything else like side tables , coffee table , lamps and armchairs had to be rearranged , as you can imagine . It’s not drag and drop like you do in those Remodel and Decorate Apps. But the Turtle was having a lot of fun with it.

Finally the tree is up , everything in its place , looking like a living room again and not a furniture warehouse . My dear youngest daughter decorated it , and  I in my designated job as the ” untangle the Christmas Tree Lights Cord specialist ”  (the girl is an engineer student , shouldn’t she be the one figuring that out ?)  finished it and lighted the tree . By dinner time we had it all set and looking good .

What is a girl to do after a whole afternoon fighting with time and boxes and furniture ?

Ah! You know what is coming … after dinner I had to sit , and enjoy my tree and my “new” living room , while sipping on an after dinner drink ( no , not coffee or tea , after all that work I deserved a real drink ! ) . It was a peaceful and very nice “serão” (what do you call that after dinner time ? do you have a name for it ? ) . Very nice indeed .

Next day is another story . No way the Turtle could get herself out of bed or subdue her headache .

Lesson to take : don’t do in a few hours what would require two days  to do , don’t move furniture without help , don’t keep popping cold medicine throughout the whole day , and above all else don’t top your red wine laced dinner with an after dinner drink (or two) .

It was fun though and my little tree puts a smile on my face every time I walk by .

 

Just a glimpse of my Happy Tree .

Sorry , had to crop it a lot , as the photo I took with the Tablet is total rubbish , with all the glare from the lights , and my incredible photographing skills on top .

 

 

Now that I am finally not sneezing and coughing like a maniac I need to devote a bit of time to my Blogging 201 .

But I am thinking it might be best if I do most of the work behind the lines , as I must keep myself safely far way from that enticing pool called Commons where I tend to lose myself , reading everyone’s comments and blog after blog . Yeah , it is an addiction 😉

Well then , I have to  “work” .

Thanks for reading , and thanks for your get well wishes.

Turtle Hugs 🙂

Question to my English teachers (that’s you guys) : A Turtle fight ? A Turtle fights ? or a Turtle’s fight ? – which one is the correct one , please ?  thank you