And so they say but I have to confess the Christmas decoration is not my favorite thing! Because I’m a designer, extremely organized and on top of all the details, everyone “assumes” that I would go all out for Christmas. When in reality, it is something I dread every year! And what I have just now come to realize is that I am not alone …

My kids are away at college and last Sunday, my husband insisted we go to get the tree. Just thinking about it makes my stomach hurt – trying to find the perfect tree, then having it delivered or do we put it on top of the car. Then moving all my furniture around in the living room. Going up to the attic and dragging down all the boxes (oh my gosh) – all the hassle and the work and the mess. And the bottom line is I have to put away all my nice things to set out a bunch of stuff! Every year I swear I am going to buy new decorations because mine are quite old and every year I don’t do it because I don’t want to spend the money.

So this year, I had my usual “nervous breakdown” and got so annoyed with my husband that I left the tree lot in a huff and just drove home. Thankfully we had come in two cars!! What is it about putting up that tree that freaks me out??

He ended up going to another lot by himself, picked out the tree, loaded on the car, brought it home, set it up, trimmed the branches to shape it nicely, put the lights on it and then started putting on the ornaments. Being the control freak that I am, I had to get involved at that point, wanting it to look perfect!

By Tuesday it was done and looked beautiful and I loved it so much that I decided to host an impromptu happy hour at my house on Thursday – just so everyone could see my tree!

It is the same episode every year!