Oh Christmas Tree....


So, we put a Xmas tree up this year. For the first time in five years or so, we actually broke out the ornaments and covered a regular size tree. Since we're normally not home at Christmas time, we've been sneaking by for the past few years with the tabletop stick tree, or the wonderfully trashy fiber optic tinsel trees. This year, for some reason, I really wanted to put up a full size grown-up tree. I'm thinking that this will be simple, after all I purchased a beautiful pre-lit tree at a store closing sale. Just unbox that bad boy and plug 'er in......right????

Himself may disagree with me. I sent him to the crawlspace no less than twenty times. I sent myself to the local drugstore twice. I sent the poorly behaved beasts out of the room no less than a hundred times. The tree had balance issues, and the cord for the light up topper was too short for connection and I ended up dissecting a Christmas tablecloth for use as a tree skirt. My two hour project morphed into six hours, and a good chunk of my living room furniture had to be rearranged. Then came the sorting of the ornaments. The idea that next Christmas may involve a small child means that the ornaments need to be sorted into breakable and unbreakable boxes. As I dropped some shiny red ball ornaments into the breakable pile, Himself snatched one up, tapped on it a few times and announced that it was unbreakable. I truly wasn't sure and I told him so. He decided to demonstrate the unbreakability of said ornament by squeezing it tightly. As the words "I guess you're right" began to leave my lips... the shiny red ball exploded in his hand..... at which point I sent him downstairs for the twenty-first time to retrieve the vacuum.

Did I mention we won't be in town this year either?????