Once I pulled out the first five-pound wad of Christmas lights, I knew I was in trouble.

First of all, finding the end to that string of lights and the plug was like finding a needle in a haystack. However, once that monstrous task was accomplished, I was faced with another dashing reality- half of them didn't light up.

The temperature had already dropped, and I was in no mood to leave the house.

Bah, humbug.

Well, out I went because I needed Christmas lights to go on the tree; after all, that's the first thing you put on it, right?

Okay, back with the lights and the toilet tissue I had forgotten the other day. Might as well kill two birds with one stone.

Now that I have my new Christmas lights and am surrounded by boxes and boxes and bags and bags of Christmas ornaments, I need toŠ.oh, waitŠ..where is that page of instructions for putting the tree together?

You would think that something as simple as color-coded limbs would be easy to assemble, but, no. Someone in the packing department must have been half asleep or either talking on a cell phone when packing the limbs of my Christmas tree together because now I have one too many yellow-coded limbs and not enough brown-coded limbs, which means one limb is going to stick out a little too much on one row.

Well, that's why we turn one side to the wall, isn't it?

Okay. That's done. The tree is up. The row of limbs with the one sticking out too far is facing the wall, and Samson, my 21-pound tomcat, is spread out and sound asleep right smack in the middle of my 25 red Christmas bows.

Bah, humbug.

What in the world is that? Oh, yes. A big spider Christmas ornament that is now missing an eye that one of my students made for me years ago. I don't put it on the tree, but I can't bring myself to throw it away either.

And here's the paper Christmas angel with my brother Van's name on it. He died in 1983. I had forgotten about that ornament. So, I gently hang it near the top.

My all-time favorite ornament goes right smack in the front. It says, &#8220Christmas is for friends,” and it contains a picture of my best friend, Lynn Duncan Sessions, and me on the day we graduated from high school. Okay. Now, it's starting to feel a little more like Christmas.

And here are the little golden baskets that Mary Fannie Hinkle from LaFayette gave me several years ago. She's gone now. I like to hang them all around the bottom, and when I look at them, I think of her, and I smile.

&#8220Deck the halls with boughs of hollyŠ.”

What is this? It's a beautiful ceramic candy dish a colleague of mine made for me for Christmas when we taught at Cloverdale Junior High School together.

&#8220Fa, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, laŠ”

I turn off the overhead lights and look at my finished Christmas tree completed with new lights and meaningful ornaments.

Then I join Samson on the couch in the middle of the red Christmas bows. We don't really need them this year, do we, Big Boy?

Yep, all's right with the world.

Regina Grayson is managing editor of The Luverne Journal. She can be reached at 335-3541 or by email: regina.grayson@luvernejournal.com.