The Never Ending Saga of the 2021 Christmas Tree - Decorating 101

 Hola!  Today I did epic duty and individually applied and then twisted, twined and tweaked 590 lights on my Christmas tree.  I did not buy a pre-lit tree, after experiencing the slow death of lights on my previous 6.5' tree that served me well for 10-11 years.  Each year for the last 3 years of her life, she lost more lights and I was helpless and clueless on how to fix them.  I couldn't wrap my head around lights on half the tree still working after 10 years, and half the lights on the tree just deciding to die after 8, 9 and 10 years.

So - today was suck it up Jan, get the lights on the tree!  I got the box filled with lights from basement storage and spent about 3 hours doing my best to weave the strands of lights in and out of all the branches.  I started at the bottom of the tree as a decorator on Youtube told me I should do, and with one last string of 120 lights to work up to the top of the tree thinking I'd have more than enough, I see it looks a bit sparse of lights at the top 15 inches or so.  DRAT!  I will pick up one more box of lights if I can find something in LED "warm white" at the supermarket tomorrow.  Sigh.

Then I wanted to put the ribbon on. I pretty much ran out of steam, but no excuses.  There is ribbon on the tree.  Am I happy with how that ribbon looks?  Nope.  It is a far far cry from Ramon at Home's gorgeous trees with perfect ribbon that he makes it look so easy to do - and I can't do it!  Right now I'm thinking I'll take it off tomorrow, but maybe I just need to tweak it some. 

I am feeling rather inadequate right now.  As punishment for failing Christmas Tree Ribbon Application 101, I'm going to spend the evening re-watching every Ramon at Home video on how to decorate a Christmas tree. For your viewing "pleasure," below are two shots of the tree with the lights (and the ribbon) on it.  I have started on the tree topper as well, and discovered a box of picks and florals that I ordered at the end of last season that I totally forgot about.  I'll be using some of them on 2021's tree. Right now I'm not happy with the status of the tree topper either, it needs more pizzzaaaazzzz!

I definitely need to do something about that ribbon, OY!  I really need to rev up my "decorating the Christmas tree" MOJO.