No More Christmas Cheer...

Well folks, it happened, there is officially NO MORE Christmas Cheer in our household....

As many of you know, last week and in the few past weeks, I have been SOOO excited about Christmas, but we picked out a tree that is the devil, and it has caused all of the Christmas Cheer in our household to run away.....

On Sunday my husband decided to be nice to me and humor me by taking me to the Christmas Tree Farm to get our tree. It was snowing and cold, and just like a book or movie!! What a good guy he was being, as we even had lunch at my favorite restaurant, that he doesn't like, before heading out in the cold in search of the perfect tree!

Well, after lunch we headed out. Upon arrival, we were given the choice of cutting down our own, tree, or having the staff cut it down. Because my husband loves me, or at least did, we opted to cut it down ourselves to make it more "authentic." Needless to say after many rounds throughout the trees we, I should say I, found the PERFECT tree (with some debate from Nick).

Once again, humoring me, my loving husband gets down on his knees on the cold wet ground, in the snow, and begins to cut down this 11 foot or so tree. Of course it is too big for our house, but they can cut them down to whatever size you prefer, making it the perfect tree!

After about 10 to 15 minutes of sawing on this tree, nothing. It is not even leaning yet. If any of you know Nick, he has NO patience, and this is really not a good way to get any. At this point he starts to get angry at the tree, and at me because this was all MY GENIUS idea. So, another 10 minutes or so passes, still nothing. At this point, there is anger, and lots of it. I proceed to walk back up to the front and ask for assistance, since I could see that poor Nick was not getting anywhere fast.

Well, help came to the rescue, with a chainsaw I might add, not a handsaw. After about 30 seconds, down the tree came. Another minute later it was cut and trimmed to a perfect 7 foot. At this time, all is well again, and his humor is coming back around, no Christmas Cheer, but some humor at least....

I have realized after seeing them bag it and load it, that it may be too big for the lights that we have. Nick humors me some more and allows me to run into Home Depot and get some more lights. We get home, eat a good dinner courtesy of his mother, and hurry home to put our tree.

After much time trimming, and fluffing it is in the stand and ready to be brought in the house! Ta da, it DID fit through the door!

This is where the REAL trouble begins....

Our beautiful tree is in the house and in its stand, the only trouble is, now, we can't get it to stand up!!!

So here we are, angry from the cutting experience, and angry because our extra large tree stand that be bought last year won't hold our tree. It is big, but not that big as we had it CUT DOWN to 7 foot. Well need less to say, three days later and two i-bolt lags in my woodwork, along with 2 bungee cords, it is standing!!

TIME TO DECORATE!!

This should be fun right???? Remember how I said that we had to stop and buy MORE lights because I didn't think we had enough, well I was right, and even with the new lights, we STILL don't have enough. On Monday I decided to go to Wal-Mart after my doctor's appointment and buy more, so I could finish this NOT so perfect tree, well...I get the home, start to put them on, plug them in, and they don't work.

Yep more anger....

So on Tues, after class, I proceed to return that box of lights, just my luck, and get new ones so we can FINISH this stupid tree! As I am waiting in line at Customer Service, I realize that the man behind the counter has NO IDEA what he is doing. When it is finally my turn, he lets me exchange them, so I walk back to the Christmas department and get TWO boxes, in fear that my luck is with me again today, and one of them won't work when I get it back up to Customer Service. Well I was right, as I re-wait in line, and it is my turn, I ask him to plug them in and try them for me. Neither box works. That is right, all THREE boxes of lights that I picked out, NONE of them work. So as he thinks of what do, and calls for help AGAIN, at this point I just ask for my money back. Needless to say 15 minutes later, I got a gift card for my return.

Angry, yet again over this tree, I call my poor mother (I refer to her as poor because I think that she should have ALL of the answers and has received a MILLION phone calls over this tree). She tells me to go BACK into Wal-Mart and make them find me a box that works. Well, I am not gonna do that, so, still angry I head to the Dollar Store, all the way across town, but up ahead, on the right, there it is, Walgreens!! Oh yes!! They have lights! I pull in, get inside, find the right aisle, and not only do they have lights but they have power strips out so you can TEST the lights BEFORE you get them home!! What a life saver!! Needless to say I finally purchased lights that worked!

Upon arriving home again, I was actually excited about FINISHING this tree that has been a HUGE pain from day one. As I begin, to put on the new lights, yes...it falls over, AGAIN. That is when the i-bolt lags and bungee cords came into play. With some good advice from the poor Christmas Tree Farm that offered to exchange my tree, and my father, a solution had been found!! So, I made ONE more trip into town to purchase the i-bolt lags and my mother came out to save my sanity and possible the thinnest strand of Christmas Cheer that I may have ever had left this early on.......But this morning, it is STILL STANDING and all a-glow!!! (and FINISHED)


On a lighter note our baby boy's bedding that I had been stalking on E-Bay, and my father stalked (and won) arrived yesterday!! It is even cuter than in the pictures!! Now the question is what do with it until May.........