Christmas tree

We got a fake pre-lit Christmas tree the first year we were married and have had that tree ever since. For the past two years, more and more lights have been going out on it. This year, I spent a couple of hours checking each lightbulb to find which ones were not working. After replacing about 10 of them and still the tree only had splotchy sections of working lights, I was done! When Nate saw how frustrated I was, he very lovingly decided it was okay to get a real tree this year and wait for after-Christmas sales to look for a replacement fake tree. We LOVE our new tree! We have never had such a nice tree. My decorations are a bit sparse, but I plan on slowly adding a little more each year.

It ended up that after putting on the new lights we bought for the real tree, that we had gotten one too many strands. I took that and strung it around the old tree, and it looks just as good as it ever did when the lights were working. So, we see that making decisions while extremely frustrated is probably not the best idea. We could have solved the problem with a $5 string of lights, but I'm okay with having two trees. The real one is so much more beautiful than the fake one, and the kids love having their own tree for all of their ornaments.

With two trees, I needed to also get another tree skirt. I couldn't believe that a cheap-looking one at Target cost $40. So, I found an idea on Pinterest and made my own that I love! Have I mentioned how much I love my hot glue gun?

Speaking of real Christmas trees reminds me of the year growing up that Mom got a tree before we were ready to decorate it. It seems like everybody was so busy that the tree stayed on the front porch in a bucket of water for a couple of weeks before we had a night at home together to bring it in and decorate it. Anybody remember this? Has my mind exaggerated it? When we finally brought it into the house, hundreds of mosquitoes started pouring out of the branches. Oh my goodness! I just remember chaos! Everyone was yelling to shut the doors to the rest of the house and block them into the living room. Dad got out the vacuum and started sucking them up while everyone else was using their hands and flyswatters to smack them on the walls or out of the air. They were everywhere!!