The Lights Are Up & The Tree is Bright

Hello, my name is Jessica, and my house has been decorated for Christmas for a week already.
Well, sort of. Mostly decorated. Tomorrow is the real it's-been-a-week-day, but that's okay.

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This apartment is, uh, not set up for Christmas.
I take that back. It's set up alright, if you have a tree, and are having it near a wall-plug-thing, as they are about a foot from the floor, so that's cool. But if you're looking to hang lights up on the wall instead...it will be awkward and you will spend too much time trying to figure out how to do it and you will be sad. Eventually, things will get up, and it won't be perfect, but you can turn the lights on and have a colorful living room, and you'll manage. But, man, was it a heck of a time getting to that point.

First, I plugged the lights in and made sure they all actually lit up, as you do. Which yay, they did! Except, you know, after the Mister came home and was helping me with all this he mentioned that it's awesome we don't have to check them ever...to which I said "wait, what?" - apparently our lights are LED and staring at bright lights was not a necessary thing for me to do. Awesome.

Second, I didn't want to put holes in the wall, so I tried to hang up the stocking with washi tape. It managed to stay up for a few hours before it fell (and, of course, made such a noise that the dogs had to bark at it, because they are bad at differentiating noises they should and should not bark at all of a sudden).

Third, I used the 3M command hooks to try and hang the lights up. They worked perfectly in our old apartment (even with them being stuck on the ceiling to hold the lights up!). Except somehow either I wasn't doing it right, or the walls in this apartment are horrible, because they just would not stick. I think it was a combination, also, of it being on a wall that doesn't have anything on the other side of it (and therefore a rather cold wall!) and the bad/thick "texture" paint job on the walls. Also that the ones we have are a bit older, and have been in the closet with the water heater, which could have effected the glue. So, many reasons they decided to not stick. Well, they would at first...the one that lasted longest was up for about four hours.
So last Saturday we went and got some cup hooks, which the Mister kindly stuck into the ceiling, and the lights and ornaments got hung (and the stocking!).

Luckily, our little fake tree is self-contained, as the lights and whatnot were still on it from last year, and the lights themselves are battery operated! The little fox ornament has been hanging out in my drawers-of-crafty-bits by my desk all year, just waiting to come hang out.

The little tree displaced LEGO Batman, who now is hiding on the media shelf (but you can spot him, I promise!). I wasn't going to move the Millenium Falcon, because of Episode 7 (but also because there is nowhere else for it to go!). I even have two presents are wrapped "under" the tree!
Our Star Wars stocking is empty, but will (hopefully) get filled with some candy bits at some point.

And the second string of lights are literally laying on the back of the couch. I would put up more hooks, but I am about this short from being able to reach. The Mister is the one who plugged them in and stuck them along the couch, to which I said "no, please, hooks,"as he walked back to the office. So there they will stay, it will seem.

It is exciting every night, though, to turn on the lights and have a brightly colored living room (even though it's still dark). It's the little things in life for me, apparently!
When do you put up your Christmas decorations? Is it as complicated as a process - I hope not!

~Havok

P.S. Just realized that all these areas of decoration have Star Wars in them. We may or may not have a problem (we don't, I promise xD ).

P.P.S. The Mister saw me adding photos to this post, and decided to put up hooks for the rest of the lights to hang up and not be on the couch. The power of blogging, apparently!