A Tree Tale...

**Disclaimer - important to the story, I promise.**So something's switched in the last week - it's like week 32 of pregnancy is ushering in this feeling of "oh boy, I AM pregnant." And I'm finally really feeling it. As it goes with many first time pregnancies that go full-term, you don't really SHOW how pregnant you are till a little later in the game, so it felt like it took f-o-r-e-v-e-r to show...and the weight gain was slow and steady as was the bump progression. But tis no more...now we're riding off into the sunset, me and this belly of mine, with lightning speed that's only to be slowed down by a waddle.

And on top of it all, we're what? Less then two weeks till Christmas by my count, right? AND our story begins....

Ty just returned from his six-week (which we calculated out and it was really SEVEN weeks) of traveling, so we're finally just getting to the decorating and general merriment that historically speaking at least, has started much earlier in this household. I tried, believe me, I tried. I even had Ty get ALL the boxes down from the attic in the hopes that I would decorate during the week and he'd return home to a winter wonderland. Instead he returned home to boxes opened and things scattered randomly throughout the house - not so much a winter wonderland, but rather like Mr. Kringle got sick and threw up all over our house. Awesome.

So this weekend we were off to change all that and start with the tree. Only to find that the trees we LOVE and prefer - were - you guessed it, were pretty much gone. (We do a real tree, not a fake one...though I see where the appeal is now in that you never don't have a nice tree...) So, we strategized and we decided we'd give a new species of tree a try - so instead of the Noble Fir we love, we went with what we thought was a really beautiful Fraser Fir. The plus side - this thing smells incredible. Definitely more fragrant. The downside - the thing is the worst to string lights. It took Ty and I well over an hour and a half to get the thing right...but still we were in the spirit of the season and we were finally together doing it all...so we continued! We stayed up till midnight getting the thing juuuust right and drinking our hot cocoa - and there was lots of talk of "this time next year..." and general cuteness going on. Now, midnight is not my bedtime these days, so by the time we went to bed I was exhausted. But happy. We were getting back on track - maybe the rest of the decorations WOULD make their way up!?!

At nine the next morning, we were still laying in bed, we had earned a luxuriously slow start to the day given our holiday efforts from the night before...and we heard a loud swish and crash (enhanced by a lovely glass shattering sound). IS THAT THE TREE? was all I could mutter...and sure enough it was.

Don't ask me how it happened, I really have no clue. Because while it looked like it needed to be a teeny teeny bit more centered, I figured that was just my retentive behavior sneaking in. There were lots of bad words exchanged about the tree and stupid Fraser (obviously IT IS the tree's fault!). And we got the thing back up and surveyed the damage, one glass bulb had made it all the way across the living room and hadn't even broken - talk about a survivor! Really I'm surprised how many made it out alive given the size/weight of the tree.

The tree is now being punished for its bad behavior and is not redecorated. It's in timeout with clear fishing line running from the tree and being anchored to a tool box that sits behind the tree for extra support, since clearly we can't trust this thing. We're keeping our eye on it for the next few days to see if it's still possessed and then we might consider redecorating...the verdict is still out. Remember my disclaimer about the being big and pregnant? Yeah, not happy with this tree. I hope it redeems itself.

But I have hope and photographic proof that it was at one time something beautiful...here it was before the great fall of '11 moments before we hung the final ornament:

 

I'll be sure to let you know how the tree makes out this year - if it doesn't go well, we may just stack our gifts up by the fireplace this year;)