oh christmas tree. . .

. . .make no mistake - i love the holidays.  from thanksgiving to valentine's, everything is full of family, joy and magic.

i love to sit in the living room with the christmas tree up and lighted - the various other lights strung around - it's magical.

well, i have yet to find a tree i love. . .we do the artificial thing, for ease and allergy reasons. . .and we've had a few that are fine - but none that i love.  well last year, i got it into my head that i wanted one with LED lights already on it. . .john and i discussed it and agreed it was time.  so out went the old tree last year, with all the discarded wrappings and holiday trash.

would have been fine - except that neither of us remembered this. . .at all. . .until we went to take the tree out.  can you say PANIC??

yes folks - i panicked. . .how on earth could i give my family the perfect holiday without a tree??  so i got online and started looking - we had found a great one at Sears - out of stock, i checked Target. . .nothing. . .i did what i always do when i feel i've screwed up in some major way - i called my mommy.

she talks me off the ledge almost every time. . .not sure how she does it - john was trying his best to make me feel better - and i love him for it - but i needed my mommy.  and true to her form, she came thru. . .she had a tree, it had lights, and she was heading to deptford on sunday - if we wanted the tree, we could meet them there.

now - we could have driven around in the snowstorm and looked for a tree at all the usual haunts - maybe we would find one - maybe we would have to settle for what they had in stock that we could afford. . .mommy's cast-off tree was a certainty.

so we met them in deptford for the great tree exchange of 2009. . .we got it home, unpacked it and i started fluffing it up. . .it was small. . .shorter and narrower than our old tree. . .i started to worry i had made a mistake - again. . .what if our cherished ornaments didn't fit on the tree??  we've been collecting them for 18 years. . .

well i started putting on the colored balls, and then the kids helped to put on the special ornaments. . .i placed the angel (I can reach the top without a stool), and tied on some bows. . .

john said it's not a bad little tree. . .just like they say in charlie brown. . .but you know what. . .that scrawny little tree, dressed up with our history and love, is a nice little tree, and the smiles it put on everyone's face make it the best tree eveah.

catch you soon -