I'm one of those people that likes to decorate for Christmas as soon as I possibly can. I have the urge to bust out the Christmas decor before Thanksgiving but my mom refuses. I truly believe that if I tried to get out the storage boxes before Thanksgiving she would physically block the entrance to the shed with her body. But, I do not agree with the store breaking out Christmas before Halloween is even over! That's another rant for another day.
So this year, I brought out the Christmas decorations right after Thanksgiving. I thought about not even letting the Thanksgiving table get cleared before I ran out to the shed and cranked up the Christmas music but I thought that I shouldn't scare all the guests. A long time family friend and I went to The Christmas Carol on Thanksgiving night so that filled my Christmas spirit quota for that day, thank goodness!
I waited until Friday to indulge my Christmas craving, much to the satisfaction of my mom. As I was sorting out all the doo-dads and watcha-ma-call-its, I came across our "tree". Now, I put "tree" in quotation marks because what I found was not a proper tree. What I found was a horrible excuse for a tree. I found a four foot tree. A FOUR foot tree! Where are we, NYC in a rent controlled apartment? No, I think not! We are in a recently renovated 1,400 square foot house and I will not stand for a puny four foot tree! I insisted that we go to my grandfather's house and retrieve our true tree from storage. We had a perfectly wonderful 7 ft. pre-lit tree sitting there, waiting to be admired in all its glory.
The next day I proceeded to assemble the newly rescued tree. Now, for those of you that have not had experience with pre-lit christmas tress, there is a little catch to putting them together. Each section plugs into the one before it so that all the lights can light up while only using one cord plugged into the wall at the bottom. I had all the sections put together and all plugs connected, I was ready to let it shine. I plugged it in to much drum-rolling by my 5-year old cousins. The reaction was less than excited. Why, you ask? Well, my loyal reader(s), only the first half of the bottom section was lit up! Huh? What? All the sections as plugged in. What is wrong? I took it apart and tested each section individually. They all worked, except the top half of the bottom section. I racked my brain, how could I put it together without having to plug each section into each other? Maybe I could run an extension to cord to each section to light them up individually. But that would defeat the point of having the sections able to plug into each other now wouldn't it.
And then it hit me! Maybe it's the fuse on the bottom half. So, I went to work replacing the fuses in the plug. Ready? Here we go again! Yep, you guessed it. Nothing! Same result! Well after much discussion, it was concluded that one of the lights was burnt out on the bottom section and the only way to fix the problem was to find it and replace it. That sounds like a barrel of laughs, doesn't it? I didn't think so either. Sadly, that tree was put into the trailer outside to be taken to the dump. But, that wasn't the last time we would speak of that tree. Oh no, not the last time by far!
So, in disgust, I headed to Wal-Mart to buy a new tree. For those of you that know me, you know that Wal-Mart is not my favorite place. I had no choice though! I had to have a tree, especially one that is taller than four feet! I found a perfect contender in the garden section and made my purchase. When I got home I got right to work putting it together. I recruited my mom to help me because at that point me and Christmas trees were not on good terms. We put all the sections together and plugged them together. We plugged the whole tree into the wall. What happens? Part of one of the sections didn't light up! Oh no! Not again! I've just about had it now! But, then I see it. A plug that is not plugged in. How could that be? An extra plug in the middle of the tree? It has to have a mate. We searched and searched. By the way, who came up with making the plugs the same color as the tree? Sure it's convenient in making the plugs blend in, but, there in lies the problem, how are you supposed to find them to plug the tree in? Finally, we found the plug's mate. At this point I had an epiphany, each section has multiple plugs to connect.
That's right folks, the other tree was perfectly fine. I just didn't know this fun fact at the time. So now we have two perfectly good trees, and are $100 poorer for no good reason.
I made up with the Wal-Mart tree as I was decorating it. Decorating the tree always makes you feel better. I think I did a fine job, if I do say so myself.
As you can see we are tinsel and candy cane people. Sure the tinsel will haunt us until next Christmas but who cares! It's great!
Now, what's a tree without a tour of it. I bet you've never been on a tour of a Christmas tree before have you? Well hop in the Magic School Bus and shrink down as we venture into the tree. Here are some favorite ornaments.
I got this ornament in middle school when I was taking dance. I still love dance and wish I still took classes. I think this fairy is beautiful and it is one of my prized possessions. I love the colors on her.
That's right! That is me, the one and only! Wasn't I a cute little kid?!? We have many ornaments on our tree with pictures of me. Most of them I made in school and are made of wrapping paper and are held together with glitter glue. Oh the memories!
This is the newest addition to our tree. I picked this cute little guy up for my mom n my recent trip to D.C. My mom collects Santa Clause ornaments and I thought this one represented D.C. perfectly! Isn't he cute!
This is my favorite of the Santa Clause ornaments. What a perfect Florida Christmas ornament! This is also my mom's favorite Santa ornament. It's just perfect with Santa hanging from the starfish with the little present in his hand. I love it!
Did you have a Christmas tree adventure? What are your favorite ornaments?
