Siliconchef by Brian Richardson
Suzan and I finished the ritual decoration of the holiday tree … okay, our artificial tree (the big pipe cleaner that looks somewhat like an evergreen).
Another ritual is debugging the strands of lights that have been in storage for 350+ days. After running out of spare bulbs to replace the burned out bits of our white light strands, we headed to Wal-Mart for a 9:00pm light run ($1.58 per 100 lights is a small price to pay for holiday sanity).
At least my tree habit is saner than some people I know. Exhibit A: chat log between me & Joyce …
[10:49] JoyWhit13: but I’ve been thinking of doing a theme tree, and going all purple
[10:50] JoyWhit13: I don’t want to limit myself to a theme though
[10:50] JoyWhit13: hehe, I have a friend in Seattle who does 4 trees
[10:50] JoyWhit13: so she can have 4 themes
[10:53] SpambrianWork: ah
[10:54] JoyWhit13: she’s nuts
[10:54] JoyWhit13: but they do a lotof entertaining, so she likes to decorate
[10:55] SpambrianWork: So make the Four Holiday trees of the Acopolypse 
[10:55] JoyWhit13: oooh
[10:55] JoyWhit13: I will suggest that
[10:55] JoyWhit13: she’s love it
[10:55] SpambrianWork: the Death tree … all black lights, lots of skeletons
[10:56] JoyWhit13: oh, god, that’s great
[10:56] JoyWhit13: sort of a halloween theme
[10:56] JoyWhit13: although…pestilence…
[10:56] SpambrianWork: Plague … red lights, bacteria ornaments
[10:56] SpambrianWork: War … tanks, guns, swords
[10:56] SpambrianWork: (crap, what’s the 4th one)
[10:56] JoyWhit13: famine
[10:57] SpambrianWork: right
[10:57] SpambrianWork: more of an Ethoepian thing going on there
[10:57] SpambrianWork: some diet books
[10:58] JoyWhit13: you’re insane
[10:58] JoyWhit13: I like that about you
[10:58] SpambrianWork: thanks 
Of course, Fuzrat decided that kitties have to explore the tree … but it hasn’t ended in disaster like last year (not yet, anyway). We have moved to sacrificial cat ornaments that don’t contain several yards of silk (just little holiday colored disco balls). The house is decorated – our first holiday season in the new home.
Being said friend of the many trees i REALLY like the death idea.. sadly the black artificial trees are HIDEOUSLY expensive 8( *sniff sniff*
I have three actual trees and one teeny one btw
the Fantasy tree (faeries unicorns elves celestial stuff etc)(in the living room)
The Blue white and silver tree
(in the front hall)
And the Traditional tree with all my childhood ornaments (in the Library)
Teeny one (mom sent it to me when I lived in NYC it’s about a foot tall)(dining room)
My house is big. I like trees
Wouldn’t the Four Horsemen of the Holidays be, like… "Overeating," "Waiting Forever To Check Out At The Department Store," "God Damn This Traffic Sucks," and "Oh My God The Company Will Be Here In Ten Minutes And There Are Several Square Inches Of This House That Aren’t Decorated Yet?"
And let’s not forget "Things That Don’t Work Properly Even After You’ve Given Them a Good Thumping."
"I’m sodding not, I’m People Covered In Fish!"