Monday, January 10, 2011

Christmas tree mayhem...

  About 5 years ago I bought a beautiful Christmas tree, unlit.  The reason I bought an unlit one is because Jason and I couldn't agree on what type of lights a Christmas tree should have, I said clear, he wanted multi-colored.  For years I set the tree up by myself, branch by branch, layer by layer, then I meticulously strewn 1200-1600 lights (colored of course, I give in too easily).   Four hours later, we had a beautiful tree with tons of COLORED lights, that I actually grew to love.  The 4 hours however, didn't include actually decorating the tree or the rest of the house for that matter.  This year I wasn't having it.  I did it by myself all those years and if I am going to be the one putting up the tree every year I decided this was the year I would simplify and buy a pre-lit tree.  I went on my shopping quest starting with KSL classifieds.  I found one for what I thought was a GREAT deal.  I brought the unopened box home then set out to get a few new ornaments to put on the 7.5 foot tree.  When I got to Hobby Lobby I decided to see how smokin of a deal I got and checked out the prices on their 7.5 foot trees.  I got a SMOKIN deal alright, on a tree that was at least 2 feet shorter than I had envisioned!  I was SO BUMMED!  I didn't want to call the people I bought the tree from and tell them I was an idiot and thought 7.5 feet looked more like 9 feet so I kept the tree.  Totally irritated I went to Sam's Club to get a big container of ornaments to make my own wreath.  I found my way over to the Christmas section and there it was.....the PERFECT Christmas tree.  Sure it was 12 feet tall, but hey my ceilings are 20 feet tall in the entryway where the tree would go.  I decided to get it.  Now rarely...ok, never, do I make a purchase like that without running it past Jason first.  I thought about calling him but I knew he'd surely say no.  So I decided to get it without his permission or opinion.  If I hurried, I could get it home, set it up and have it decorated by the time he got home anyway, then what would he do, make me take it down and take it back???   I grabbed the boxes (actually the kind worker's at Sam's Club grabbed them for me, who wants to see a pregnant girl try to lift awkward boxes when she is already so awkward looking??) paid for the tree and went home.  Now a tree this big would HAVE to have a lot of ornaments, something I didn't have.  I went a few different places and found the perfect ornaments to adorn my new tree with.  I hurried back with my ornaments and started setting up the tree.  HOLY CRAP that tree is tall, it looks a lot bigger in my house than it did at Sam's Club!  I risked mine and my unborn child's life just trying to put the top tier on the thing!  I hustled about putting the ornaments on and then dun, dun, dun,  JASON walks in.  He looks at me (I'm just smiling at him) and says, "WHAT is THAT"?????  I looked at him laughing and said, "Uh a CHRISTMAS TREE, duh, what does it look like?"  Then of course the very next question is, "How much was it?"  My response, "Isn't it beautiful?"  He just laughed.  I could tell he really liked the tree, I was relieved. You see Jason is a guy that appreciates nice things, even Christmas trees, but he doesn't like spending money for nice things.  Long story short, we had a beautiful tree this year and I am looking forward to putting it up every year (not pregnant).   The other tree????  Well, we decided to use that one too.  We put it in our living room and put all of our fun ornaments on it.  Our house was cozy this Christmas and I was sad to take it all down (ok, just a little sad, I got sick of redecorating the trees because my almost 3 year old thinks the ornaments are toys).