The decorations were up the day after Thanksgiving and the tree was up the follow week.. Although....... you would have thought we knew better after living overseas for almost 10 years.
When you live overseas you MUST be a compulsive buyer because it won't be there the next day let alone 2 hours from the first time you saw the item. Thanksgiving Weekend we saw the trees at the BX, but did we buy, no! We were busy decorating among many other things, "Let's get it next week, they have plenty of live trees," I said! Mistake number one.
The next week we went to the BX to buy the tree, whoops only 15 left. Mistake number two, it had been very warm all week long, just picture a 3 foot almost bare Christmas Tree. A Charlie Brown Christmas Tree at best and of course a discount for a dead tree of course not! It's the BX for goodness sake, "YOU will pay full price for a dead tree". So back inside we went to look at the fake, okay I will be politically correct, ARTIFICIAL trees. You have to understand where I am coming from, I am not a fake Christmas tree snob, I just grew up going to the Christmas Tree lot with the family, cutting down the tree and loading it on to the car. It is an important tradition that has been carried on within our family. $175 or $125 or $125 or $175 for a fake tree from China (wow think of all the bonus chemicals I will be getting with this tree). Wow what a selection! Back outside we went. There was a rather large tree that was in good condition, but it was huge! How to fit a tree that is 7 feet wide and 9 feet tall into our home? I felt like I was doing one of Lexi's math equations.....If the tree is 7 feet wide and 9 feet tall and must go into an area where the ceiling is 6 feet tall and the space 5 feet wide and you have the tree on the roof of your car traveling at a speed of 35 miles per hour, what is the weight of the tree and will it fit into your home? Solution go to self help for hedge trimmers. John cut the top off, the trunk was downsized and then he shaped our tree into a perfectly shaped Christmas Tree, that was just the right size.
Mistake number 3, I threw away all the rusty, old, metal hooks and was going to buy hooks this year at the BX. We had all the ornaments unpacked on the table and NO hooks. I called the BX and the guy said they been out of hooks for weeks, they only got a few boxes in, just like the 200 live trees that were brought in for 10,000 families. The guy was trying to be helpful and suggested paperclips, I envisioned a tree with paperclips all over. TT=Tacky Tree. Who does the managing at the BX? I just don't get it.
I called Sarah, no hooks! I am now having just a little tree trimming anxiety. I am thinking over and over, Jesus, family, fun, Jesus, family, fun, this is what is important, NOT ornaments hanging on the tree. Okay that wasn't working. I called my friend Janel, bingo, she had many, many hooks, wow they make modern, green, plastic ones now, nice to know.
So the tree was trimmed and a few days ago I ordered tree hooks from a site called Bronner Christmas Site and paid $10.00 for modern, green, plastic hooks to replace Janel's hooks and then of course their was a special S&H rate for the military of $9.00. Only 200 plastic hooks, maybe weighing 5oz at the most. Hoorah, thanks for your support Bronner.
Please don't take my posts the wrong way, those of you that know me well it is just my sarcastic sense of humor that is genetic. Our Christmas Tree is the best looking tree so far, we just needed to be creative.
3 comments:
OK, STILL laughing BUT I REALLY wanted to see the whole paperclip thing come into view...I have a feeling that somehow you'd make it look BEAUTIFUL!! AND I was sooo rooting for a FAKE tree when you said you were going inside...guess the BIG one that's not quite dead yet won over, eh?! :)
The fake trees were about 10 feet tall, at least the 5 that they had left, so once agian we had a logistical problem. The big one is NOW quite dead, but you wouldn't know it by looking at it, only if you breath on it. You can hear the needles falling on to the Christmas presents.
Your tree is beautiful! However, I feel your pain. I can't wait to move back to the states.
Karen
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