Thaattt's allll Ffffolllks!

When we lived in the condo, we didn't have room for a big Christmas tree, let alone a live one. Our gifts were embarassingly placed under a 2ft table-top tree that came with teeny-tiny lights and ornaments made for Barbie-sized people.

Last year we bought a house and realized that we now had enough room for a real tree, albeit a small, real tree. I was finally able to rejoin my parents on their annual "tree-cutting-down-day", which is usually held the day after Thanksgiving. We drive 2 hours to BFE and drive up and down rutted, muddy lanes looking for The Perfect Tree. In the past, my mom has marked trees for return viewings with tissues, or even her gloves!

Marc was unable to come with us last year, so it was a real treat to have him along this year. He had never cut down a Christmas tree before; his childhood was limited to plastic trees, or the sprayed kind you find in the parking lot of a seasonal ice-cream parlor.

Unfortunately it rained the entire time we drove around the tree farm, which didn't help the hunting. Thankfully we found 'our tree' quickly and Marc sawed it down before I changed my mind.

It was a pretty, little tree once we positioned it in the corner and decorated it with lights and ornaments from my childhood. Once again, Marc's childhood did not produce any memories that we could hang from the green branches.

I was careful to water my tree each day, but after a few, I started noticing that the water level was remaining close to the top of the stand. And if you've ever had a real tree, you know that means one thing: The tree has stopped taking up water...it is close to drying out! Well, it was only mid-December when this started happening...our tree needed to make it 2 1/2 more weeks!! By Christmas Day, it was so dry that just breathing on it caused a shower of needles to hit the floor. I'm accustomed to leaving the tree up until after New Year's, but I just knew ours wouldn't make it much longer.

Today I began the tedious process of removing all the ornaments and I attempted to carefully unstring the lights. I started off gentle, trying not to cause a big mess, but that was hopeless. In no time at all, I was just ripping the light strands from the brittle branches. When I had finished and bagged up the remainder, this is what I found on the floor:

Ahhh...what fun vacuuming I had! What made it even MORE FUN was the fact that I have berber carpeting, so lots of needles got embedded in the threads and would not come up! I was down on my hands and knees picking them out, one by one.

Next year, I think I may splurge and get one of those fake, pre-lit trees. That way next summer, I won't have to worry about stepping barefoot on one of those embedded needles!