Tree Trimmin'

Surely you didn't think the putting up of the Christmas Tree would be uneventful did you? You didn't think we had finally learned anything from all of our mishaps did you?

This year's tree fiasco involves insulation. You know, the stuff in your attic?? And not the new fangled spray on insulation like they use on home makeover shows. Nope. The pink stuff. The pink stuff that comes in little chunks. Somehow in our rage of shoving the tree in the attic last year, it got COVERED in insulation. Which, you know, makes for a nice, pink snow effect, but is um, you know, DANGEROUS! So, I spent the better part of yesterday morning picking insulation off the Christmas Tree. And off the steps, and off the couch and off the floor. And then running the vacuum to make sure every last speck was up before my nephew came over and ate some.

Once all the toxic material was extracted from the tree, I started putting it together. Let me just say that I'm a stud, because the pieces of that thing are heavy. I think I made some very un-ladylike grunting noises while I was working. My hard work paid off though, because Drew said, "Wow Mom, you are super strong to do that." Yep. That's me. Super strong.

After the tree was assembled, I worked on the engineering puzzle that is getting all the lights to come on. As I've mentioned, the tree is pre-lit so there is a very complicated (ok, just to me) system of male and female outlets. After a while, I finally just gave up with one band around the tree still unlit. I just.couldn't.take.it.anymore. I got a second wind later in the evening and FINALLY got all the lights on.

We got out the ornaments and starting decorating. Within two minutes two ornaments were broken and Drew was crying. It was a true holiday family moment. You know, depending on the family...