Tinsel Interview

Interviewer: Fiorella, every time I drive by your property, I admire those tinsel garlands strung from tree to tree down your driveway.  Where did you get the idea?

Fio: Actually, it was pure desperation. I wanted to decorate the front of our property, but the road is an acre up from the house and we have a screen of trees across it, which meant I couldn't use lights or fiberboard stand-ups. I stared at everything for a while, waiting for inspiration, and finally realized garlands were my only choice. They're lightweight and inexpensive, tinsel catches the light, and they provided a continuous line for the eye to follow.

Interviewer: I noticed that you have added more garlands this year.

Fio: The first year, I was using leftovers from inside decorations and hung just a few trees on the road and a few more down the drive. Now I'm up to 300 yards of garlands, although half of that number is due to my adding a second tier of tinsel so I have a double hang.

Interviewer: How the heck do you secure the garlands to the trees?

Fio: At first, I just looped them around whatever nature provided, which meant I had to walk the drive every day and reposition the them. The next two years, I used wire, which was a bitch to take down after Christmas. This year, I used twisties, which are fabulous, especially when I have to hang the garlands from metal stakes because I've run out of trees..

Interviewer:  Any problems?

Fio: The cedars. I've had to be ruthless with them because they tend to reach out and snag the tinsel. My repair kit this year consisted of twisties, scissors, and pruners.

Interviewer: Do you have any final advice for anyone else who wants to hang garlands outside?

Fio: Buy your packs at a dollar store and save them year to year. Tinsel is cheap, but it adds up.

Creative Solutions Live Here

Fio is feeling quite pleased with herself. She wanted the entrance to her house to look welcoming to Christmas guests, but the freeze had killed off all her lavenders except one tiny blossom. Eureka--she grabbed the gold tinsel garlands she had bought for a project that didn't work out and wound them around on tops of the bodies of the lavenders. Two days later, the wind blew the tinsel off, but Minnesota son and his wife saved the day by helping Fio make hooks and prongs out of old coat hangers to hold the tinsel in place. Bet nobody ever came up with either of those solutions before.

Progress on the Christmas Prep Front

Fiorella is, as she predicted almost through with decorating. Last night she packed away all the left-overs except the new tinsel she bought to take the place of the garlands along the road that the storm had beaten to a pulp. She'll make those repairs and replacements today, add more decorations to the outside tree, and to pick up some butterflies at Hobby Lobby to finish off an inside wreath. Definitely, she'll be through by tomorrow evening, and that's the best time she's ever made. And if you're wondering, everything stays up for a couple of months to make up for all the intensive labor.

One More Down, A Million to Go

The tree is down--dismembered, in fact. It took about four hours.  First, Fio had to retag every branch with a color-coded slip of paper because the old tags were fast becoming indecipherable.  Yes, dear reader, the tree is that old.  In fact, it is so old that it wasn't born with lights n it.

Next, Fio had to stack the limbs in boxes and, as it turned out, bags.  Next came the out-to-the-garage-storage-area stage, which Husband, bless him, helped with.  And now comes the sweeping up of the trail of tinsel along the pathway, which Fiorella has yet to tackle.

But the tree is yet another item off Fiorella's post-book list.

Relief Is in Sight!

Fiorella's finished her Christmas decorating!

Well, not quite--she can't stage the mantel over the fireplace in the den until Husband connects up the lights on the little houses, and there's a plateful of clip-on birds sitting on the dining room table that she has to put somewhere, and the mailbox that needs to have a bow tied around it, and the tinsel garland at the entrance to the driveway that has to be repaired.  But after all of that is taken care of, Fiorella can sit down and relax.

Relax?  No--she has presents to wrap, a contract relating to the family business to get signed by Husband and Nephew, and her own publishing contract to find and sign.

Still, she's more up to date than most years.