I’m sitting here looking at a sad Christmas tree. Actually, at this point, it’s only a small Fraser fir propped up against the wall. A tree doesn’t become a Christmas tree until the ornaments, lights, shiny balls, garland, popcorn-on-Trilene, etc, have all been flung upon the little bush.
Some plans fell through last night so Katie and I got all gung-ho to put up a tree. Through a series of stops and starts, we finally managed to get a tree into the house around 10 p.m. Yeah, kind of late to start trimming, but we managed to get completely off our normal schedule during the nine days we were away last week (which explains my lack of blogging lately). By the time we ended our week, we were staying up to nearly 2 a.m. and waking around 9 or later. So, by the time we got the tree inside, we were still a good three hours from bedtime.
We found a great deal on trees from an independent farm in North Carolina at Kroger. We really wanted to support the local Boy Scouts but their lowest price was over twice what we paid at Kroger. I’m all about supporting the li’l troops, but they need to get a hint from their sister tribe and start selling cookies to raise money. Or gasoline.
We got things arranged in the house to make room by the front window because, well, you know, you gotta show off your Christmas spirit. We got spirit, yes we do! We got spirit…and here’s a shiny tree in our front window to prove it! Then I broke several mom-inspired rules by building an incredibly precarious ladder consisting of a chair, a toolbox, and a guitar amp to retrieve our decorations from the attic. It was precisely the right height and I didn’t fall. Success.
So, décor down, space secure, tree inside, coffee brewing, nativity scene in place, Ella Fitzgerald playing…the scene was idyllic. “Honey, where’s our tree stand?” called my beloved. “Uh…in the storage room?” “No it’s not.” We spent the next 30 minutes turning our 1,100 square feet upside down. How many places can a tree stand hide? Apparently there’s at least one really amazing hiding spot that it has found.
Do you know how difficult it is to decorate a tree as it’s leaning against the wall? Very. So I take off back to Kroger (it’s 10:50 at this point) and spent a good 15 minutes scouring the entire store for a simple stand. Do you know what? They don’t sell ‘em. Sure, they have ornaments, lights, shiny balls, garland, popcorn…they even have an animated Santa that wiggles around to a Brenda Lee song when you come near it. They have 200 trees out front and nary a stand to set them into (yeah, I know I ended that sentence with a preposition. Deal with it, grammar Nazi!).
So, here I sit donning my elf hat (with fake ears) waiting for the hardware store around the corner to open. I’m determined to not have a Charlie Brown Christmas tree. This little fir is going to get the best high-performance stand money can buy.
As long as it’s under $15.
(rw)
Well, we understand what you went through. We got our tree up, put lights on it, and then became too tired to decorate. That was a day or two after Thanksgiving. It's still not decorated. Yeah. It's been busy. And when we aren't running around like elves on high speed, we're simply cramming our 6 hours of sleep in. Something is wrong with this...
Posted by: Laura Anderson | December 14, 2008 at 08:53 PM
That is great. Last year we managed to buy a Christmas Tree that was too tall for our stand. It took about an hour for us to figure out what was wrong.
Posted by: Jonathan | December 11, 2008 at 09:25 AM
As I am highly allergic to "real" Christmas trees my husband climbs the ladder in the garage and throws the tree down to me each year. I haven't been hurt yet but there has been a close call. Do I take the pain or let it land on the Harley Davidson??? I know where I stand in his life..therefore I take the pain.
Missed seeing you on our latest trip to visit Angela and Brad. We did get to see Carrie Underwood...
Posted by: Amy Michel | December 09, 2008 at 09:58 AM
"nary a stand" haha LOVE IT! :)
Posted by: Margaret | December 08, 2008 at 11:19 PM
I'm guessing the "almost thief" from the October 6th post made off with the mythical stand........
Posted by: Ed | December 05, 2008 at 05:35 PM
I grew up on a farm where we sold Christmas trees. (We sold them for $12 by the way - the Boy Scouts probably wholesale purchase their trees for $3-$4 each so yeah, its a ripoff). Anywho...we had several customers who used a 5 gallon bucket filled with sand instead of a tree stand. Doesn't sound very pretty and I'd strongly recommend a regular tree stand...but it would be cheap. Perhaps in more ways than one.
Posted by: Jean | December 03, 2008 at 12:12 PM