Tree Down - February 2012

It's finally down! All you can see here are the tree skirt and tree stand. In 2011 the tree came down on February 27th. I'm ahead by five whole days!

Lights Off - February 2012

The lights finally came off tonight. All that's left is the tree! Pictured above are the lights on a neighbor's trees.

Ornaments off the Tree - February 2012

Last year I had the ornaments off the tree by January 30. This year they're all off by today, Groundhog Day. The tree itself didn't come down last year until Feb. 27. Let's see if I can beat that this year.

The Tree Is Down!

Okay, I posted on January 30, 2011 that I was starting to take ornaments off of the tree. Well, with one day left to spare in February, the whole thing is finally down! It really was a rather nice tree if I do say so myself.

Taking Down the Tree

It's January 30th and I've decided it's time to take down the tree. Before putting it up in December I had told Dale I wanted a real tree this year. He told me I'd have to have it down by New Year's. I decided to go again, as we do most years, with the artificial tree instead. Considering we don't usually put the tree up until the week before Christmas I like having it up through much of January.

I used to work with a woman of Czech descent who grew up on a farm near New Prague, Minnesota. She told me her family always put their tree up on Christmas Eve and her mother would leave it up until the Feast of the Presentation on February 2nd (Candlemas).

When Sam, Pete, and I were growing up Mom would usually leave the tree up until Epiphany Sunday.