The Tree is UP!

Well, this afternoon, after enjoying a great Thanksgiving lunch, we decided to put the Christmas Tree up.

Not to skip any details, lunch was interesting on it's own.

A few years ago, we decided to give my Mom a year off, so we went out to eat on Thanksgiving. This nice restaurant down the street, Fred's Hickory Inn, does a nice Thanksgiving lunch. It was good, to say the least. The following years were a jumble, being in Amarillo one year, and Little Rock the next. This year, we're all home again, so we decided to go back. It's beginning to become a bit of a tradition around here, with my Mother being the #1 advocate. She went ahead and "did us a favor" by getting the reservations a few weeks ago. She really "did herself a favor", by making the statement that she wanted another year off.

So, we kept the forming tradition alive, and went to Fred's for lunch today. It was just as good as the last time, which puts my Mother in line for slipping under the radar once again next year.

To be honest, I like going out, because there is no mess, and I can eat as much of whatever I want. However, If we are home next year, I might push for us to have a traditional meal, because I don't want this Fred's thing to get locked in for all eternity.

Anyway, sitting around this afternoon with no dishes to clean, and no left-overs to stare at and dread the consumption of, we got bored. So, I went downstairs and started hauling up our artificial Christmas Tree in segments, making the statement that we were putting this sucker up, today.

I know how it works around here. If we didn't put it up today, it'd be December 20th. And, on December 20th, then it'd become a "do we really want to set this rig up for five days?" affair.

The tree is up. It's looking good, and I feel like the neighbors will soon follow suit.

Maybe we're actually late, and I just think we're ahead of the game. I don't know what the standard is. When is the right time to put it up? I know over at the Elliott house, they were ON THE BALL this year, because their beast was up just shy of two weeks ago.

What's the norm?