Talk about trials and tribulations. For some insane reason I decided to be the one to get the Christmas tree this year. Usually hubby does it, but he had a dental appt. today so I figured I'd do it. Why wait until tomorrow?

First I put the new tree stand together, the old one was sitting out in the back yard all year-being that I hate to clean it and stubbornly managed to "forget" about it- and I figure, "hey, it would be easier just to get a new one, and I want one of the old fashioned ones with the wide bowl so it'll be easier to water." So now to put together the new stand, hmmm no instructions just the picture on the box. Ok this shouldn't be too hard. uhoh, the pictured doesn't look exactly like what I've got. No worries, I get the idea. Ooops, can't get the ring around the legs. Now I've got it, you need three hands to hold everything down in place until you get the screw's in. Gotcha ya little bugger, all put together now.

Now for the tree. Zoom on over to Target and take a look. Those 3-5 ft. trees look pretty small, let's go for a 5-7 ft. tree. Not so sure those stumps will fit in my brand new stand, though it did advertise that it would hold a 7 ft. tree. Time for some expert assistance. After much discussion with a helpful employee on finding a fresh tree and the merits of various tree stands- no thank you I just put together a brand new one- I finally have myself a nice looking 6 ft. tree with a freshly cut stump and bundled up for the ride home.

Getting the tree from the car to the apt. wasn't too bad, except for unwittingly catching the netting on a lamp post and a sprinkler head as I walked by them and nearly being pulled off my feet.

Now to put it in my brand new stand. Uhoh! I can't fit the stump in the stand ring! Never mind I can fix this, I just need to get out the little hand saw and pare down a couple of knot's that are on the stump. Geeze! This wood is really hard! How am I supposed to hold the tree steady without risking whacking off one of my own appendages? Well after a lot of hard work and sore arms I think it's ready. It goes in, mostly. I'm pretty sure that it's not supposed to swivel around like that though. Maybe I should take it back out of the stand and work on it a little more. Uhoh! I can't get the stand off! It's stuck! After some more sawing just to get the bloody thing off I did the whole thing again. I won't bore you with the details of the second go around, let's just say that after some very strong language I decided to cut my losses and see if I could salvage that old tree stand.

Cleaning the old stand. At this point the apt. was pretty much a wreck of wood chips, whacked off branches, pine needles, pieces of netting, tree stand parts and various sharp implements so I decided that it couldn't do any more harm to clean that mucky old stand, with it's rusty screws, in the bathtub. That's what I thought until I was scrubbing it out and my hands touched a slimy, decomposing slug that was wedged in a crevice. Uggggghhhh! After numerous attempts to clean my slimy finger off and choking back a few gag's the job was done. Only one more big mess to make and that was cleaning the rusty screw's in the kitchen sink.

Compared to the previous stand martyrdom, getting the tree to stand up was relatively easy this time. Just as I was tightening the screws hubby came home. Isn't that always the way? But he was a great help in cleaning up my disaster area. Thank goodness because I was beat.

Now you probably think this whole long boring thing is over, but I have just one more little thing to add to this tree adventure. Just about an hour ago I added water and was checking to make sure that the stand wasn't leaking everywhere. As I was crouched with my head under the tree I heard a rumble. Well, any Californian knows what that is. Yup, a bity earthquake, no biggee. Wait a minute, it's getting louder. Maybe I should get out from under the tree. Yikes! Those were the wall's rattling! As soon as I thought that I rolled out from under the tree- very quickly- and then our little shaker was over. It really was a little one, 3.6, but all I kept thinking about was that darned Christmas tree was jinxed and going to fall over on my head. I just wouldn't be able to stand it if the tree had won the battle.

Next year, hubby get's to have his Christmas tree job back, I want nothing to do with it! In fact, a fake tree has been sounding real good. Tomorrow the lights go up, if you don't hear from me again you'll know that the tree won.

[ December 16, 2005, 09:10 PM: Message edited by: Renee ]

After that experience can't say I blame ya one bit for handing the task of getting a tree back into your hubby's hands. Nothing like a little shake to top things off. Well at least you can blame a bit of the mess on the quake, even if it didn't have as much of an effect on things as you did. Good for you Renee, you didn't let the tree win and even with your little disaster you can now sit back and enjoy it. Actually after all that effort I bet it's become special tree. =)

We use to go the real tree route as well but between the mess (before, during and after), potential fire hazard, the cats wanting to make it their play fort etc we opted to go with a fake one. Tree farms or not I still hate seeing all those left over trees heading to the shredder. I do love the smell of a real tree though and bringing a bit of nature in. It does have a special feel to it. =) I'm still cool with going fake though, they are actually pretty nice today and it's so easy to get it up and ready for decorating and a breeze to take down. There are pros and cons to both and at the end of the day all that really matters is how many presents under the tree have your name on it. J/K

Renee, sounds like that was quite a battle. I understand 100%. The tree and the lights are my husband's job, ornaments are mine. I don't think I could ever get used to the earthquakes. That had to be scary being under a big tree and that rumbling starting. Yikes!

I'm one of those crazy women that has a tree in every room. All of them,with the exception of the tree in our living room, are artificial. My favorite one is my kitchen tree. It is an old (belonged to my parents) artificial tree I know I need to replace, but every year I decorate it with dried apple and orange slices and homemade ornaments. Everyone who sees it comments on how cool it is. We have a huge kitchen, so this is a big, 7 ft. tree. I like my artificial trees, in some ways just as much as my real one. We've been going the real route so that Brianna can have the experience of going to the tree farm, etc...I'm happy to pick them out and decorate them, but getting the darn things up is hubby's duty.