Christmas Tree

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree, Your branches do delight us. Ok, that may not be the words to the song but it is something like that. I love Christmas time. The tree, the sounds, the songs, the smells, the family gatherings, and of course I LOVE THE GIFTS. I love to give gifts. It makes me feel so good. I wish I was rich at Christmas time just so I could buy more gifts for everyone. I would love to be a super hero and come in to save the day for so many people on Christmas Day. So this is my Christmas tree trying to get decorated. But it did not start out like this. Of course not, let me tell you the story of our Christmas tree....

The Christmas Tree Dilemma

We decided to not put up a real tree this year for fear that Rudy might think it is indoor plumbing for him.=0


So we bought our first artificial tree. I have looked all over Tulsa for a tree. Not just "a" tree, but the right tree. And after my job that I wrote about in a previous blog, I felt I was a pretty good judge of tree character. A connoisseur of Christmas trees if you will. So we found this tree and I REALLY liked it. Got it home, put it up and "fluffed", (oh how that brought back memories!) and turned on the lights.....so pretty. Wait, do not tell me. There are several branches at the bottom that did not light up. You should be able to see it in this picture, bottom right branches. Good grief. I just spent an hour fluffing that tree. I would have sworn those lights were working earlier.




"What's wrong dad? Why aren't the lights working? What's wrong?" Callie is such a good girl and always there to help.



I swear they understand what is going on in our house.









And they are always wanting to help.
" Move over will you I will check that side."
" No, you move over and let me in. This is mans work. "
" Yeah, well I bet I can figure it out first, girls are smarter."
" No they aren't!"
"Yes they are!"
Kids, you just have to love them.





"I told you girls were smarter!"
"No they aren't"
"And they are tougher too!"
"No they aren't"
"Oh yes they are!"
"Oh no they aren't!"





Ok, so now we have figured out the NEW Christmas tree is not going to work. We paid too much money to not have it work perfectly so it is going back. But I want my tree up today. So I check the adds and Sears has a nice one for $100. less than this one. Let's go!!! It is 9:00 pm. and they will close at 10:00. We are going to run quickly to Tulsa and grab this tree for today is the only day it is on sale. Scott said to put the dogs up and lets go. I said no, they can stay out, they are sleeping on the couch and if we turn the lights out they will just go to bed for the night. We had even just taken them outside to pee pee for the night so they were all settled in. We turned off the lights, (left the tv on for noise in the house) and left. We even tried calling Sears just to see if they had it. I did not want to drive all the way over to North Tulsa from Sapulpa and then they not have it. By the time Scott got through to someone and they transferred him THREE times and his patience ran completely out, hung up on them, we were there! We had less than 30 minutes to find a tree and get it paid for. The electricity went out! Someone in the store had not reprogrammed the store for the later hours during the Christmas holiday. Now the cash registers are down. We have about 20 minutes now. I found a tree I liked, the one that was on sale, went to the place to get it and they said it is sold out. I asked the girl if she could check on it for sure. She said she would, but this was her second day in this department. ( I think it was her second day at work!) She was gone for a while and came back saying there was one left. Thank you Lord for small blessings! We had to go to a different cash register, pay for it and then run out the door to go to "pick up". We get there just before 10:00, Scott goes to get the tree, they bring it out on a Dollie, IT IS HUGE. So after MUCH finagling we finally got it into the Honda. That was stupid to bring my new car, but I wanted to drive. I can not see out the passenger side window what so ever. Oh please do not let me get stopped by a Cop. I don't even want to try and explain this stupid move. Scott is in the back seat trying to be the passenger side eyes. We made it home!!!

Scott is trying to get the tree out and I decide to get the house opened up for him...... Oh MY GOSH. The dogs DID NOT sleep like I thought they would. oh no, not at all. They had gotten into a sack of ribbons and balloons that mom and dad brought over along with a bunch of my decorations for Christmas. They had strung/drug the ribbons all and I do mean ALL over the living room. Pink and white ribbons were ALL OVER THE LIVING ROOM FLOOR. There will not be a picture of that. I was telling Scott, begging Scott, do NOT come into the house. I knew he was going to be furious with me. Because not only was there ribbon but there were brown piles all over the carpet. I could not believe it. I had just taken them out not even an hour ago. I can not believe this. Wait. It doesn't have that familiar smell. What in the world is this???? Good grief. They have gotten into the fire started logs and chewed them up all over the living room floor. In fact, Callie grabbed a big chunk and took off with it. I yelled at her to drop it and she just kept on going. Scott had to go get her and physically take it out of her mouth. She would not give it up. I am grabbing all the mess, trying to get the ribbons gathered up and I notice that not only have they strung them all over the living room floor, they have even gone AROUND the Christmas tree. Good grief. I guess it is true, when the cat is away the mice do play. Sleep, are you kidding, soon as we shut the doors, those kids partied. I guess I learned MY lesson.