The tree is here!

It's our second annual Christmas tree!

I'll take away some of the suspense and admit that it looks pretty similar to last year's, because Josh and I still have most of the same ornaments and lights. (We did add the University of Tennessee's Smokey ornament to our tree.) It might be a little bit more sparkly than last year, though. For once in both of our lives, we found ourselves in the post-holiday Target clearance section in late 2011 and decided it would be prudent to stock up on cheap ornaments and wrapping paper. (We were very pleased with ourselves!) We both completely forgot about that until this year, when we opened our holiday storage boxes and found a big stash of new ornaments. YAY!

Some of the new ornaments included about 6,000 little red jinglebells. I wasted no time focusing on what's really important.

He looks so world-weary when we try to involve him in the holiday spirit.

After we dragged the tree into our house, Josh started setting up the tree stand. Wish wanted to see what all the commotion was about, so he wedged right in next to Josh. That was totally fine with us because we had wondered briefly if he would react, uh, less favorably to a tree inside.

While Josh set up the lights, I sorted through all of the ornaments. Typical snapshot of our home here: on the windowsill, you can still see my (unrotten) Halloween pumpkin. Seasonal hodgepodge.

When we were in Colorado last weekend, my mom set up her holiday decorations during Wish's stay. I guess he got used to being paid a lot of attention over there, because when she focused on the decorating instead, he sulked. When we got out the decorations, his face was all, "OH NO, NOT AGAIN!"

I don't understand all the fuss. I don't.

But he was very happy to hunker in and be part of the 2012 Christmas tree photo.

Here's 2011:

Ha! At least we know our taste is consistent. Definitely more sparklies this year, though.

Can you believe 1) we had white walls and 2) we did not have the little wolf running around our house? I hardly can!

2012 has been good to us. And I love our tree!

Will you decorate for a holiday this winter, Reader? If you are getting a tree, has yours already been up for ages, or is the decorating day still on its way? Do you have any other pre-holiday traditions that you like? My favorites include snowflake-making and cookie-baking, and that stuff is still yet to come!