Our Tree

Yea! I got a tree!


A couple weeks ago when we were in Lowe's, I went to brouse the "Christmas Crap" (as my mom and aunt have dubbed it) while Malcolm went to get some stuff out of the electrical supplies. Malcolm and I have had a live tree, the years we've managed to have a tree, since we got married. But I've been seriously thinking that a pre-lit artificial tree was the way to go. We're not home to water a live tree, and to be honest, the Christmas chore I despise more is putting lights on a tree! So I was brousing, and they had a couple of nice ones that I would have gotten. But they were like $300 and I just couldn't see spending that on a tree this year. I considered trying for the after Christmas sale, but didn't figure I'd make it, and so just decided to plan on trying for one next year.

Well....we were in town Wednesday and I went to run errands, get a few Christmas things, look for some new shirts and a pair of shoes. Just the usual errand type stuff. And while I was out I decided, what the heck, I'll just go get the tree. Well the tree display had been destroyed, was only half its size, and the one I liked most was gone. The sales guy walked up and asked if he could help me with anything, and said all the trees were half off. Well that would explain why they were GONE! But hey! Here was my after Christmas bargain, before Christmas. So I broused what was left, and they had one tree I liked, but it was a little too bluish for me. The other one I liked a lot too, but they only had the display model left and half its lights were out. Kind of defeats the point of a pre-lit tree, don't you think?

So feeling a little dejected, I left and as I walked to my car I thought, "Well, I guess I could see what Home Depot has...why not?"

Home Depot had even fewer trees, and not all of them were half off. But I found a tree very similar to the one I liked at Lowe's that had half the lights out, only it was $269. Too much! So, about that time the sales guy came by and asked if he could help me with anything, and I asked him if that was the best price they could do on that tree. He said he might could take off another $10. Oooooo wow! Anyway, I said, "well Lowe's has a tree thats very similar and they have it priced at $150." And so he said he'd check with his manager and see what they could do. He came back and the manager had told him to sell it to me for $150! SOLD!


I went home and put it up in my big front window. Its 7 1/2 feet tall and I'm thinking its a good thing that the 9 foot tree I liked first was sold out! Things look smaller in those big display areas of stores, then you get them home and they are a little bigger than you think. We learned that with Malcolm's gun safe. Our tree doesn't have any ornaments on it this year, but it till makes the house feel more festive.

I do have another little tree. Here is the story of my other tree. One Christmas when we were preparing to move to Georgia, our house was full of boxes, and so we didn't put up a tree. Malcolm at that time was driving for Made Rite Sandwiches and was gone two nights and four days a week. Well, he knew I missed having a tree so on his way home, he stopped at a Walmart in Alabama somewhere and bought this little tree. He bought a bow for the top, a string of lights, and a red bead garland, and put a tree skirt around the base. He had me stay in the bedroom when he got home and set the little tree up to surprise me. It's been our only tree several years when we wern't around long enough to put up a big tree, and I love it.

This year, I went downstairs to my Christmas things to get it out and discovered that the mice in Baker had chewed up the bottom or the tree skirt, bitten the string of beads in half in several places, and chewed the tree branches a little. Not only that, but in that same box they had chewed holes in my Christmas table cloth and napkins, a basket, and the velvet bow on the girls stocking. It was very frustrating, but there was one happy discovery. That same box held my childhood Christmas stocking and the one that Mom had made for Malcolm. Neither of them were touched, even though they were mixed in with all the other things. What a relief!
I was discouraged about my tree though, and just closed the box and put it away, not feeling like dealing with it. Well last week I couldn't sleep one night so I drug it back out of the closet, cleaned it all up, and salvaged what I could. I use it for my snoopy ornaments. Mom gives me a Hallmark snoopy ornament every year, and I have enough now to decorate the little tree nicely. So this is my decorated tree. Its downstairs in the living room.

Email me pictures of your trees! I love to see them and would love to see what your tree looks like this year!