The Emergency Tree

Our Christmas tree is up! Sort of.

We hauled the tree out of the attic and got ready to set it up, then discovered that about half of the pre-lit tree wasn't any more.

I REALLY like the tree, so I decided to remove all the lights and keep the tree - just use conventional strings of lights like we used to do in the dark ages of the 1990s.

So I sat down and began stripping the tree of its lights. I unwound and untangled the wires and the wire branches and fake needles made lots of little cuts all over my hands.  It looked like I'd been in a cat fight - with REAL cats - and I'd lost.

After two solid hours of this, I had removed all the lights from the bottom third of the tree. Hmmm... This is going to take longer than I had hoped.

I decided that was enough of that for one evening - I had to go to work in the morning! I took the whole tree (in pieces), put it in the laundry room, and shut the door to control the cats' curiosity. Steve came home and wondered whether the tree had met an untimely death.  I assured him that it was still viable, but undergoing renovations.

I was feeling the pressure of my self-imposed decorating deadline. I needed a tree and didn't know when I'd be able to have THAT tree ready.

I let it simmer in the back of my brain for a couple of days, and voilá! Inspiration! I had a four-foot pre-lit tree in the attic! If we put it on a small table in front of a window, it looks like a full-sized tree from the street.

So, I sent The Boy up to the attic to bring down The Emergency Tree. We set it up in about fifteen minutes and I immediately felt lighter - less stressed.

I can still mess with the other tree, but I don't have to get it done in any specific timeframe. The house looks fine, I can enjoy the holidays, and when it's time to pack everything up, it will be FAST.

Thank you, Emergency Tree!