Well, the countdown to Christmas is on and my mad woman persona has reared her ugly head.

You would think by now, after years and years of preparing for the holidays, I would have gotten it down to a science, but no, not me. I don’t work like that, especially when it comes to decorating the house.

Although I take pictures of my decorations on my cell phone each year, with intentions of using them as a resource for the next, I invariably do major tweaking, or in most cases, something entirely different.

It’s almost like a game — let’s see what Terri can do this year. This is all good and fine and fun. That is, until this little game of mine becomes drawn out over days or, as is the case this year, weeks.

I pulled the tree down from the attic before Thanksgiving and put the lights on it. But with all the other fiddle-faddling I have done with decorating around the house, it is still ornament-less.

But I will say, the lights on the tree look great.

Maybe I should just leave it as is — not.

The problem I have with decorating my home for the holidays is really quite simple. I have amassed so many beautiful decorations and because I love them, each and every one, and the special memories they invoke, I feel like I have to display them all.

But unless I want to really make it look like Santa threw up in my house, I decided I could not box myself into a corner of Christmas collection overload.

Therefore, I decided I would go shopping in my own closet, as they say, and select what I would use this year to adorn my house. Next year I know I will change things up, which will give me the opportunity to use the decorations not used this Christmas.

I will have to admit, however, just because I have many decorations to choose from, does not mean I refrain from continuing to collect. Every year when the stores dress up in their Christmas regalia, I find it nearly impossible to refrain from purchasing something new.

This year one of those pretties was a little red bird.

You can never have too many red birds, right?