Our Christmas Tree

Honestly, we should have done this years ago!

And by "this," I mean "have an artificial Christmas tree."

I suppose that, strictly speaking, we have had an artificial tree, but it was only two feet tall. Joe was working long hours at a hifalutin department store and we were never in the same place at the same place long enough to get a real tree, put it up, and decorate it. (I'm pretty sure there's a picture somewhere in the archives but I'll be damned if I can find it.) Last year I ordered a plant that was more or less tree shaped and put a few tiny ornaments on it.

We did get real trees our first few years here, both small and large. It was such a pain in the ass, even though we loved the tree when we finished decorating. We had to haul the tree up to the apartment, rassle it into the tree stand, string the lights, put on the ornaments. At some point in January, we'd take down the ornaments and haul the tree to the dumpster. For a couple of years, Joe would scope out the parking lot to ensure that no one was in range and then heave the tree over the balcony before hauling it to the dumpster.

So this year, we caved. As soon as Christmas came to Target, Joe went and got a very nice artificial tree. We put it up on Sunday. I was primed for a struggle, because that's part of the fun!

It was a snap. All we had to do was snap in the feet, put Section B into Section A and then Section C into Section B. Fluff the branches and plug in the pre-strung lights. Hang the ornaments - that's the fun part! No holding it steady and straight while screwing in the bolts. No watering. No worrying about the cats drinking the sappy water. It's the perfect size, too.

That's an angel on the top. We had to kind of push her down over the topmost lights, so her skirt's all lit up like a... well, you know.