This past weekend marked the official start of Christmas preparations at my house. Since I had plans early Saturday afternoon, my mother came over early–8:15 early–to help me put up my trees. Last year I assembled a rainbow forest of trees of varying colours and heights. For this Christmas I wanted to put up my 7½-foot tree again as well as a couple coloured trees. Here are some photos of the work in progress:

Assembling the first row of branches.

Starting on the lights. This will be the first year I use LED’s and miniature dark blue lights at the exclusion of the old-fashioned solids that I have put up every year, even in my treeless first condo in 1994. Notice the empty birdcage.

The babies, Kakapo, Grey and Kelly (from left to right) are always spooked when I move the cage from the corner and set up an imposing tree in its place. They are watching from atop the TV cabinet.

Mom wields the top of the Christmas tree while my North Korean celadon pottery sits atop the turntable. Tree boxes are next to the CD tower.

This year I found a pale blue tree that I actually liked. This four-foot model is tall and narrow, just like my favourite fonts.

The weekend of the Toronto Santa Claus Parade is my official permission to start decorating. The 108th annual parade was yesterday and it wound its way down University Avenue, where my mother and I watched it just north of Queen Street. It was colder than the 10° forecast (so it felt to us) and my legs were numb from the cold as well as all the standing. We stopped by The Bay afterward and checked out its enormous Christmas decorations department. I definitely needed the Santa hat I brought to keep me warm during the parade, but by the time my mother took the photo below, I was in dire need of finding someplace comfortable to sit down:

Christmas decorating is still in progress at my house and I will post more photos when it’s all done. I love this time of year!