Taking Down the Christmas Tree!

Wow, I haven't been able to visit many Christmas blogs lately, but I'm going to do that today! I've been very busy as I'm sure all of you have been with Thanksgiving last week and decorating for the holidays. We decorated the outside of our house Sat. and Sun. and it looks so pretty. I plopped into my recliner Sunday evening and told my hubby that's it...time to rest for the evening...or wait...how could I even think that might happen....rest...what's that??? I was admiring the Christmas tree and noticed the middle section looked rather dark...NO TELL ME I'M SEEING THINGS!! My tree has been up since the week before Thanksgiving and I had some light problems that I posted about Here. I didn't like that I had to string extra lights on those bottom four branches that just would not light up for anything, but we really didn't want to go out and spend money on another tree that seems to last for three or four years and ends up having sections of lights go out (this happened to us before, this is why we ended up with this tree). That part of the tree was facing the wall so it wouldn't be so noticeable. Well, my eyes were not deceiving me!! Hubby said he didn't think it looked bad and string more lights around it as we were not getting another tree! A few things were wrong with this statement. When I put the lights around the bottom branches, the tree wasn't already decorated! While you are sitting there watching me try to figure out where the problem is with the lights on this section, what about the next section that could go out before Christmas. Maybe by Christmas I'll have a tree that's barely lit!! My daughter stopped in to visit and she said it wasn't real noticeable....c'mon...I NOTICED IT!!! I stewed about it for a while and then like a light bulb lighting up, I knew what I had to do. My daughter and I were in the kitchen and I told her hubby says no more trees, but that while he was at work, I was getting up very early Monday morning to take the tree down so I could go and get another one and have it up by the time he got home from work. She said I was crazy for taking it down as it was so much work for me to put it up and it looked so pretty and that I was OCD!!!!! Me....OCD! I'll admit I'm a bit of a perfectionist which I am working on, but OCD?

Well anyway, I did get up at 7:00 Monday morning, brought up all of my storage containers from the basement again, took the decorations off of the tree, laid them all over the place, took apart the tree and stuffed it into a big box, took a shower, dressed, and off to Kmart I went.

Picture from http://tiffy40.wordpress.com/2011/01/02/.

I was not going to spend a huge amount of money on a tree again that's probably going to give me another headache down the road. These last two trees we bought were $300 trees!! I was hoping I would not have to go farther than Kmart. I was not in the best of moods. I went in and checked out their trees which were all on sale. I had my eye on one, but just wasn't sure if I really liked it, after all, this is the one that will be in my living room for Christmases to come! Of course no one was there to help, so I had to go to electronics to ask if someone could help me in the Christmas dept. I decided on a 7.5 pine tree from Jacklyn Smith. It came with a revolving tree stand...my sister-in law said that's just another problem waiting to happen...but I can live with a tree that doesn't revolve!! I just want the lights to work! That's the kind of stand it came with! I wanted the one with colored lights and Bill had to go to the stock room to get it as I waited. He came back and put the huge box in my cart. O.K. Dorothy, here's your tree, now I'm thinking to myself are you sure this is the one you want....hmmm...I walked round and round looking at it not knowing for sure if I really liked it! Then I got to thinking that when they put those trees together for display, they really don't do a very good job at shaping them and I think that's what was holding me up. I know I could make this tree look really pretty just by shaping it the right way!! So I bought it and asked if someone could put it in my SUV...luckily it actually fit in the back seat! I had to drag it into the house through the front door, opened the box, set it up, shaped all of the branches, decorated it, and it looks beautiful!! Not bad for a tree that was on sale for $139.99. That's a big difference from $300! Hubby came home and said it was a pretty tree and wasn't mad that I had bought another one. I finished decorating the whole tree Tuesday. Monday was a long day and I had to work in the evening. So I'm hoping this tree will last longer than the other two that we had! I made a video of the tree. This is the first video I've ever made and it was from my camera, so the quality might not be the best, but you get the idea. Well, I'm off to visit some Christmas blogs! Have a great weekend everyone!