Watch the Christmas tree setup movie from... 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007
Date: December 4th and 5th, 2004
Soundtrack: Svanstrom's contribution to the Reason 2.0 Christmas Song Contest, 2002 (modified)
Movie plays at 10fps; pictures were taken every 10 seconds.
I had a car accident the day before this movie began, and I did not yet know that my leg, already in a lot of unrelated pain, was going to undergo a lot more pain and change over the next couple of months. For the moment, these are the last records I have of me being able to bend and kneel somewhat normally.
This is the first Christmas that we have ever spent without all four of us together. My dear short sister just started a new job and a new life with her new husband (!) in Tokyo and was unable to come home. We really missed her, and that was part of the inspiration for the movie. The other component of inspiration was my craving to squeeze every bit of entertainment I can out of boring things.
We were short on decorations this year since we shipped a large box of them to help Venita with her first Christmas away from us. We also had two strings of lights that seemed to have died since last year. No one bothered to run out and buy new lights and mom likes to stay away from store-bought ornaments, leaving our tree notably skimpier than it's been in the past.
There is a gigantic supporting post in the middle of our house that prevented me from choosing and sticking with just one camera angle.
Just about everyone's favorite part of the movie seems to be when mom and I rearrange the bow on the top of the tree. We're moving around so much that there appears to be four of us!
Mom and I decided to call it quits when it was bedtime, hence the sudden change to daylight.
My sister laughed out loud when she caught my hands in the prayer position (look closely just after we switch off the hallway lights to test the tree lights). I think I was praising the cup of coffee I'd had that morning. I would have been asleep rather than decorating the tree if it weren't for caffeine.