The Day After Christmas

Last Christmas, for our first Christmas together, Mon Amour and I opted NOT to get a Christmas Tree. The debate of real (my vote) vs. fake (his vote) Christmas trees was heated. So in order to keep the peace, we skipped a tree all together. Neither of us minded; it saved us some money, and we weren't going to be at our own house for Christmas anyway, so it didn't matter too much.

This year, the same problem arose - do we get a fake tree? or a real tree? (funny how disagreements like this don't just go away when you ignore them) But we decided this year we needed to get a tree. So we struck upon a compromise - fake tree for now, real tree sometime in the future when we have kids that will make picking out a real tree lots of fun.

Then I new dilemma arose: Fake trees are ridiculously expensive! At least nice looking ones are. Being the frugal folks that we are, we decided to endure one more Christmas without a tree, and we would go shopping the day after Christmas and get a fake one at a super-low-clearance price.

So that is what we did. (More accurately that is what Mon Amour did. I was still sick at that point and unwilling to move from bed. ) Initially we were thinking that a plain non-lit fake tree would be perfect. Unfortunately, clearance shoppers can't be picky. So instead, we got the super-deluxe, 7.5 foot tall tree with white AND colored lights that comes complete with a remote that controls the function (the lights blink, fade in and out, etc) and the speed (imperceptibly slow, to seizure-inducingly fast). It is AMAZING! As in, for the time being, I have been converted to the fake-tree mindset.

The tree was is so amazing in fact, we just had to put it up. So on New Year's Eve up went the tree:


The Box


Take a second look at the completed tree and you will notice that the ornaments stop about 3 feet from the ground. Marge likes to chew on the tree; we decided not to add the unnecesary temptation of ornaments. Next year maybe we will work on teaching her not to eat the decorations.

The tree being decorated, we waited until moments before midnight to begin the countdown. Turned the tree on to the "flash alternately white and colored lights" function (the most annoying) and slowly increased the speed as we counted down (note, we have no tv, we had no way of watching the shiny silver ball drop). At the stroke of midnight (as measured by my sister's cell phone) we turned it to its highest speed setting and watched it go crazy!

That is how we welcomed in both our new Christmas tree, and the new year.