November 30...a warm sunny day today for this late in the fall.  Time to throw out the Thanksgiving decor and move on with the Christmas lights and tinsel.  Tinsel?  Never really knew what that word referred to but it sounds like a really good descriptive word for Christmas decoration.  I just started decorating for Thanksgiving in the last couple of years.  Christmas is my weakness when it comes to decorating, buying gifts, surprises, and even cooking.  My mother always made Christmas so special for us kids. We would have to eat supper before we could decorate the tree.  Daddy always had to string the lights cause he could place them "just right".  Then we got to hang the ornaments and throw the icicles on the limbs.  My brother and I could really get wild slinging those and usually Mother would have to rearrange them into some kind of order.  As the years went on Mother added more and more decorations.  Our front door was cool with a silvery shiny cover and a wreath.  One year she made a "Toothpick Tree" and an Umbrella Tree.  I thought it was the prettiest thing ever.  On Christmas Eve we would always have to eat supper (again) and then go into the living room and open presents from the family...the family being Mother and Daddy and grandparents, aunts and uncles.  I would have to play the piano and we would gather around the piano and sing Christmas songs.  The next morning we would get up for Santa Claus presents.  I would usually puke. The excitement was just to much for me.  But I would always recover in time for a huge Christmas dinner that Mother, and my grandmothers would cook.  It was such a let down after dinner that day knowing all the festivities were over.  Mother would leave up the tree until New Years but I always hated to see her taking it down.  We never seemed to be around for that chore but she never complained about that.  Wish I could go back for just one of those Christmas'.