Tree Lights

After our quest for the perfect tree it sat unadorned for two days. Monday night we finally got around to decorating. If you think I was particular about the tree you won't believe how particular I am about lighting it. Last year Michael began to light the tree from the bottom. This was wrong. And I quickly informed him of this. Let's just say that didn't go so well. Any of you in the school of thought that trees should be lit from the bottom so the lights can say plugged in the entire time? You're wrong too. I learned how to string lights from my mother (and I picked up her particularness along with her technique). Lights should be started from the top to make sure the star (not angel, not spire, not weird bow, but STAR) is lighted to the utmost advantage. Plus the top of the tree has the least room for error and is the hardest to string so should be started first in order to adjust easier for mistakes and restart if necessary. Yes, the lights cannot be plugged in the entire time but those of us who are expert tree lighters do not need this advantage. That being said, I did struggle with the lights this year. Our tree has some oddities that made it difficult to light and I had some technical difficulties that required me to replace a burnt out strand in the middle, after I was finished. Things didn't go well at that point, it was hard to recover, and Michael made me stop fussing so we could start ornaments before midnight. Here's the finished product.