Christmas Tree Envy

When I was little, I was always jealous of my friends around the winter holidays. They always had these awesome Christmas trees, and covered their houses in these kick ass Christmas lights, and then they'd always ask me what I was doing for Christmas.. and I'd just be like I'm Jewish... Sure we got eight days of presents [although as I got older, it was more like here's money, go buy your own presents], but it just wasn't the same... I had Christmas envy.

It wasn't just the trees. I wanted Christmas lights strewn all over my house, I even tried to bargain with my parents, claiming we could use blue&yellow lights to represent our Jewness... It didn't work. I obsessively listened to Jesus Christ Superstar. I sent sparkly holiday cards out instead of Hanukkah cards because Hanukkah cards just weren't glittery enough!! 

From then on, I decided, no matter what happened when I was older, I'd have my own Christmas tree, whenever I lived on my own, even if it was covered in gelt and dreidels.

Fast Forward to December 2012, I finally accomplished my goal, I'm living on my own, even if it's over a thousand miles from New Jersey, in cowboy land, also known as Texas, and the first thing I did, after Thanksgiving, was demand that we drive to Target and get my first Christmas tree.

The first night, we got it, I spent countless hours tying microscopic string through red, silver, and black bulbs [the colors of my favorite Commander deck in Magic the Gathering, if you were wondering] hanging them on my tree [only after did I realize that paperclips worked so much better then strings], along with boyfriend's year old candy canes, while watching the Queen of Hearts episode of Once Upon a Time... Then the next day, I went to school, came home, and found this:

Thanks, Kitties.

All my hard work, on the floor. Of course, this was probably my fault because not only did I want a shiny sparkly Christmas tree, when I moved, I wanted fuzzy and cuddly pets too, so let me introduce you to Thing One and Thing Two:

The orange one, is my boyfriend's little terror, Ajani Gucci Goldmane, and the black & white one is my baby Sorin, the Lord of Innistrad, and before you ask, YES THEY ARE NAMED AFTER PLANESWALKERS FROM MAGIC THE GATHERING.

Anyway, I wasn't going to let our cute little terrors prevent me from having my Christmas Tree, so after calming myself, I went at it, again, and now I present to you, Christmas Tree, part Two:

And it's not done yet, my boyfriend still fully intend to stick useless Magic the Gathering cards such as Jar of Eyeballs in penny sleeves and lace string through them, as ornaments.

Kittehs 1, Me 2.

But of course, I haven't forgotten my Jewish roots:

There's my dedication to Hanukkah, glitter gel clings, that Ajani keeps trying to get through my windowsill.

He's contemplating how he can make them his.

And even though I've managed to find myself in Texas, where apparently it's 80 degrees in December... Seriously, WHAT IS UP WITH THAT? I'm still bringing Christmas... [even if I'm a Jew].

 [The Target dollar bins are amazing]

Even my Kitty's have their own Christmas Stockings:

So, finally, after 21+ years of lusting... I've finally got my own Christmas Tree. And I couldn't be happier.

Now all we need are some Christmas lights...