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"The holiday season can be a stressful time, plain and simple. First you&amp;amp;#8217;re shopping &amp;amp;#8216;til you drop (or, if you&amp;amp;#8217;re like me, shopping online until you reach your credit limit), then you&amp;amp;#8217;re circulating the social scene (holy hangovers) and trying to play Martha Stewart by whipping up delicious homemade goodies after a 40-plus-hour workweek (can&amp;amp;#8217;t we just get the slice-and-bake cookies?). That&amp;amp;#8217;s why every year I look forward to the one part of the holidays that&amp;amp;#8217;s just for me: decorating my apartment. Now that J and I are living together, we&amp;amp;#8217;re starting new traditions and compromising on our styles. Turns out I&amp;amp;#8217;m a little more Grinch than Buddy the Elf this Christmas, but it seems like we finally pulled it all together with a decked out tree and beautified fireplace. Let the holidays begin&amp;amp;#133; This is our first official [grown up] Christmas living together, so we really wanted to make it special and get a nice tree (and by nice I simply mean taller than I am). Actually, since going to college and then moving into my own apartment, I&amp;amp;#8217;ve never had a tree bigger than about two feet tall. (Plus, it was just me so I didn&amp;amp;#8217;t have the urge to go ALL OUT.) Well, J suggested we get a REAL tree for our first Christmas as a cohabiting couple (and, umm, my first real one EVER!) so I was kind of psyched about it all as we starting shopping around last Sunday. We made stops at Home Depot, Target, Loews and finally a tree place right near our apartment in Jersey. By the time we finished shopping, dropping all of the crap (I mean, err, ornaments and sparkly stuff) off at home, getting some sort of a lunch and then parking J&amp;amp;#8217;s car (this ain&amp;amp;#8217;t the suburbs people, parking is torture!) it had been close to five hours. We were so drained from getting everything we needed to decorate the apartment that we were too exhausted to actually decorate. J and I decided that the tree needed to air out and open up a bit anyway and made our way over to the bar to enjoy a few beers and the Giants game (umm, awesome win by the way&amp;amp;mdash;totally worth it!) and agreed that Tuesday would be decorating day. So, after work on Tuesday, we got to work. Well, first we got to setting the mood. You know, to really get into the holiday spirit while decorating we had planned on watching a Christmas movie. I had my heart set on Love Actually or The Family Stone while J was longing for his absolutely fave: A Christmas Story. One thing led to another and we wound up watching, well, none of the above. We kind of got sucked into the drama of Teen Mom 2 (we keep it classy, y&amp;amp;#8217;all) followed by our obsession-of-the-moment New Girl. Obviously Teen Mom was a little off track but at least it was the holiday episode of New Girl! Hey, they&amp;amp;#8217;re our new traditions. We finally starting putting the dang lights and balls on the tree after 9 P.M. and I was feeling a little grumpy. J began calling me the &amp;amp;#8220;tree nazi&amp;amp;#8221; because I was so particular about which ornaments we should use and where they should be placed. I have to admit, it was a little hard to let go of the reins and let J help too (oh right, it&amp;amp;#8217;s his tree too!). Once I finally lightened up (and vacuumed the floor&amp;amp;mdash;wow, no wonder we always had a fake tree growing up), I have to say we were feeling way festive and more than a little proud of ourselves. Take a look at how our tree and fireplace came out&amp;amp;mdash;pretty, right? (We still don&amp;#x27;t have a star... still on the hunt for one we like.) We&amp;amp;#8217;re pretty pleased and excited for all the other new traditions we&amp;amp;#8217;ll start together. And I totally promised J that I&amp;#x27;d stop being a Grinch for the rest of the season and just start enjoying it all. Sigh, it&amp;#x27;s easier said than done. Did you decorate your place with your guy? Do you have any special traditions together? Are you picky like I am with ornaments? Oh, umm, and what are you getting YOUR significant other for Xmas? I need ideas! More on spending the holidays with your guy... * Holiday Gifts for Men: 30 Perfect Presents Approved by Guys * 6 Tips for Surviving the Holiday Season With Your Guy * How I&amp;#x27;m Going to Impress the Mashed Potatoes Off My Boyfriend&amp;#x27;s Family This Thanksgiving Photos: Thinkstock and Courtesy of Melissa Melms"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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