A New Tradition

We have always had a live tree.  Some more wild and crazy than others, oh wait, the year Elliot was born we went with a fake 18 inch deal.  But other than that, they have been live.

Well, that changed this year.  I pulled out the six and a half foot fake tree I got last year after Christmas for $10 (down from $50).  Yes, you read that right.  And here was our thought process with all that.  We love the real thing.  I love the smell and really the more wild and unChristmas tree like they look the better.  Noah likes ones that are a bit more symmetrical, which if you know us and our tastes in Art, these facts would not surprise you.

But back to the tree thing.  So, we won't be able to have a real one in Central America.  Just not a thing that happens there.  So to spend $10 on a fake one seemed like a good idea.  And this is one that completely comes apart.  And it really doesn't look that bad...well, maybe.  But with lights on, it looks a lot better than I thought.

And I am finding there are some pros to this fake thing.

1.  You don't have to wait to go cut it down.  Just run out to the garage and pull it out whenever.

2. You don't have to water it.

3.  It doesn't shed.  Ok, so it does a bit, but unlike a real tree, you can vacuum up the pieces.  Oh the nightmare of last year's tree!  Not only was it spray painted green, yeah, (how fake with a real thing can you get?) but the thing was one that all the needles fell off of.  As Noah took it out to the woods...yeah, that meant from my living room, all the way through the kitchen, into the entrance way, on to the  carpeted front porch, and then on to the deck there were spray painted poky needles.  That you couldn't vacuum up.  There are still a few in cracks and crevices in the entrance way.  Blahhhhhh.

4.  When you put the lights on, you hands don't get all scraped up!

Things I don't like.

1. No wonderful pine smell
2. The romanticized trip to cutting it down.  You know what I mean.  We all think it's a great family time, but really, most of the time, kids are screaming, parents are arguing, and everyone winds up wanting to just be home enjoying a fake tree.
3.  Ummmm, that maybe it.

So it's up.  Today I tacked the lights.  And it true holiday form, half the lights only light up half the time and the other half didn't light up at all.  Alright, that might be a bit of hyperbola, but here's what the thing looked like this morning.

And here are the lights I had left.

Not good. We loaded up and went into Fairview and found some very overpriced white lights.  And by overpriced I mean that after Christmas I can get them for sixty nine cents a box, so $5 a box seemed a bit steep. Noah laughed at me when I called to tell him we were leaving  to go get them, but really, who could leave a tree half light like that?  But now the tree looks like this

Not too bad. Not bad at all.  So what if my kids grow up wanting a fake tree to make it "really" feel like Christmas.  Just another weird MK thing.