Bright Ideas

When we lived on the farm, my dad would always cut our tree from a forested hillside. The sizes varied with the years. Our old farmhouse had 10 ft. ceilings, and one year the tree he harvested touched the ceiling. Mom and dad started stringing the lights; they ended up using the larger, outdoor lights closer to the bottom. It took every ornament we had.

We only put up the tree on Christmas Eve, and it stayed up well into the new year. By waiting until Christmas Eve, the kids had something to do while their Christmas enthusiasm crescendoed.

I have an aunt and uncle who were just as late in putt...