Every year I debate about putting up a Christmas tree. Some years I have one...some I don't. Sometimes I put up 'my interpretation' of a Christmas tree...I've gotten a lot of flack over the years for this but it never stops me. This year I had no choice. Kaylee is living with me so there just has to be a Christmas tree in the house. Not that she says anything about it....or even notices it....but I'm sure she would notice it if it was missing. And somehow it's just too sad not to have a Christmas tree with a young child in the house. So I just had to do it.So I finally opened the box containing the Christmas tree my friend gave me before she moved to Florida. It had been sitting in the basement sight unseen for the past 2 yrs. All I knew of this tree was that it had lights already on it so (in theory) I wouldn't have to put lights on it. Great! Less work...I like that.
Well when I eventually got the box open...not having realized that it was sealed so tight that my bionic powers were going to be needed...I discovered that this tree was in sections; three to be exact. And it wasn't long before I discovered each section weighed approximately 2000 lbs. (must be very heavy lights on it, eh?!!). Being the only person home and having already created a wonderful space for this tree..I had to complete the job and get that tree set up. (Did I say this was going to be less work??)
Over the course of an hour (no, I'm not kidding!) I dragged each massive section out of the box; around the corner; up each stair (one at a time folks!); and into the living room, where I let the pieces lay on the carpet while the dogs laughed at me and I fought off the urge to start swearing at the top of my lungs. When I was rested (and had run out of swear words in my head) I set up the stand and convinced myself that I DID have the upper body strength to lift each piece and make it fit into the ridiculously narrow hole where it belonged. Having done that...I was very tempted to take a nap on the floor. I fought the urge and started trying to figure out just how this thing is supposed to be plugged in instead.(Hey, I thought this was supposed to be less work!)
It was right around this time that I also noticed that the tree was taller than my ceiling. It had one extra long piece sticking obscenely straight up in the air and bent at an odd angle....obviously mocking me. Not to be out done after so much hard work, I climbed up on the end of the couch and calmly bent the offending piece back down. There will be no angel or star on the top of my tree anyway because I can't seem to find any of my ornaments from previous years and I'm not willing to spend a ton of money on all new ones either. You'll get what I've got tree and you'll like it! (This really seems to be much more work....)
I'm now relieved that the real grunt work is done but the tree looks really empty too. I managed to get the lights going...or at least most of them. I'm not interested in investigating the areas that refuse to light up...that's what the damn tree wants me to do...start checking all the lights. I know how that game goes and I'm not playing along. So instead I made a trip to Walmart, bought about $6.00 worth of unbreakable (in case the dogs decide they like the tree); shiny (because I can never get enough shiny!); glittering (because it's just not Christmas unless you've got glitter in all the wrong places) ornaments and put them on the tree. I did find a little garland and some beads in the basement...put them up there too.
To my surprise the tree looks wonderful even if I do say so myself! There isn't really a lot of ornaments on it and there is not a scrap of tinsel (which is my favorite!) at this point. And there aren't any presents under it either but the lights and the shiny stuff really make it look nice.
Yet not one person coming in or out of my house has complimented my tree....not one! I think people are just so used to seeing Christmas trees all over the place they just don't really take notice of them. Well I busted my butt getting that thing in place and I want compliments....and lets not forget all this work was done for Kaylee's sake. Soooooo every 15 minutes or so I ask Kaylee how she likes my tree. Yes, every 15 minutes! She laughs and tells me she likes it and waits for me to ask her again. She's only 7 yrs old so she thinks I'm being very funny. I can't wait to see how Justin and Sara take it when I start asking them too!!
The dogs are already sick of me and refuse to answer me now.
