The Christmas Tree....

We got a fake tree this year. That may not seem like that big of a deal for a lot of people, but it was huge deal for me. I have always hated fake trees...I hate how they look, I hate that they don't smell...We had a fake tree growing up, and I remeber trying to help my mother sort out the different shaped, different length, color coded, oversized pipe cleaner looking sticks that were the branches...Despite my mothers assurance that it would look real when she put the lights on (b/c real trees have lights?) it looked...fake. At the age of 8 I decided that when I grew up, I would always have a real tree....fast-forward 25 years....I spent last December trying to keep Sam from touching our ever shedding tree and then the rest of the winter and into spring cleaning up pine needles....quite frankly, it was more bother than it was worth....and when I found a Yankee Candle that smells exactly like a pine tree, I bought it and began to rethink the fake tree....after several serious conversations with Brad (they went something like, Me-"Honey, what do you think, should we get a fake tree this year?" Brad-"Whatever you want to do is fine...") We packed our kids up, drove to Linens-N-Things and bought the last pre-lit tree (with a remote control) that they had. It was too big to fit in the back of our XTerra so we tied it to the roof...just like all the people who were out buying real trees on that cold Decmber afternoon....It's incredible you can have white or "dark" (what Sam calls the colored lights) lights...it doesn't shed, and best of all, it is just two pieces....gone are the days of a box full of pipe cleaner branches...you just snap the two pieces together, plug it in, hit the remote and viola! instant tree. The only thing that could make it better, is if it came with a little elf to take the decorations off! I loved decorating the tree, but it is now mid January...we haven't bothered to turn the lights on since New Years Eve, and quite frankly, I'm tired of looking at the big fake tree....but there are boxes of decorations on it and every time I so much as mention taking it down, Sam bursts into tear.."No, I like it mommy, I like it, I do..." Not to mention the fact that if I have three free hours, I am much more likely to take a nap than deal with the tree...So for the time being and perhaps the forseeable future, the tree stands...thank God we didn't get a real one!