This year I've had trouble locating my Christmas spirit. My youngest expressed his non-belief in Santa (which actually makes me happy because I felt bad lying to him) but without that ruse and his excitement the fun of decorating and the chore of undecorating seemed futile. (melodramatic much?, I could be.)
I actually thought about not doing anything other than a tree, but even getting out to purchase one of those has been difficult. It's hard to get everyone at home at the same time. Yesterday the planets aligned, texts were sent, pick-ups were made and to the tree farm we went. It was a wonderful experience, as we walked through patches of differing varieties debating the levelness, girth and tree height I felt that perhaps a tradition was in the making. I sniffed needles and opted for the Carolina Sapphire with it's strong smell and greater shedding.(The smell is so worth the extra vacuuming.)Getting the very large 9 ft tree to stand up in our treestand designed for a 6-7 footer was a challenge. I had no doubts that my man, clever as he is, and being a handyman of supreme talents, could handle the task. He did. The tree was decorated fully and had stood for several hours before the fall. Thankfully, no ornaments were broken in the topple. After that, I had to help him by holding the tree up for about half an hour as he dug deep and came up with a plan. The girls came up with several lines as all 5'3" of me merged with the 9ft high, 6ft wide tree. My favorites, "Love the new ornament" and "Mom's a tree hugger" were beat out by "Boy, Christmas trees taste pretty good!!" as the caption for the photo now on Facebook. They're such SWEET girls.
As of now, the tree still stands (unadorned but for the ornaments that didn't fall off) with the help of two paver stones, a screw in the mantle and a bungee cord. Told you he was clever. Updated Monday 12/12 redone but still not quite straight. It will have to do though since we're afraid to move it.
