O Christmas Tree

Tonight, in the spirit of starting Christmas before the 23rd of the month, a new concept for our home, we set up the Christmas tree. Well, let me clarify, we bought and then set up the Christmas tree. For this first Christmas in our new home, I had decided that it definitely called for a new tree, one with the lights already strung. There were gorgeous trees that looked like actual pines. Those were $400.00. We went with the tree 1/4th the price and a title involving slim. In my minds eye, I was imagining how tall John was and then how much head room I remembered between him and our ceilings. After 7 years of putting up a topless tree, one would think that I would error on the side of caution but in the store, those 7 1/2 ft trees just seemed so small. So back we head with our 9 ft slim tree. We tear open the box and work out hanging wires, attach eye screws and insert sections. In with the middle and then in with the...oh. Yes, that's right, we once again have a topless tree. We didn't just overshoot by a few inches but a good half foot. The solution...find a very large tree topper and call it a day. Through the magic of bending branches up, I do think that we disguised it well, much better than if we had had a less slim tree. Our Charlie Brown tree worked in our favor. We began to hang our ornaments, red, clear and green. It is always fun to pull out the box of signed ornaments from our wedding. It is what we used as the guest book and over time, I have narrowed it down to the handful of people still in my life. Courtney, Tami, Brandy. Kathy and Don, Penny and Gary. Grandma and Pop. Granny. Carolyn Sue. Jess, Tina, Mom and Dad. Keysha, Sarah and Juls. I also kept Ed Skalla but it is mostly because he signed it as Big Fat Ed and I can't help but smile. He gave us a box of used underwear for our wedding. It was an interesting sense of humor he had. At the store we had all picked out an ornament of our choosing to add to the tree. I bought the Christmas frogs, Joshy the reindeer popsicle and John, the swan. I didn't catch it until we were checking out but for all my contesting, it was his choice. As we were hanging them up, he, of course, put said swan in a place of great prominence. After watching him turn around, I slyly went for the swan to move it towards the back of the tree when Joshy yells, Dada, Mama is trying to hide your swan. Nice. So, back it went to the front and top of our tree. Secretly, it has grown on me. Although completely unrelated to Christmas, it is related to John who is king of random things ending up in the basket. I can not count how many times I have made it to the register at the grocery store, only to find some random raw meat or exotic tofu hiding under the grapes. At the end of the day, it is Christmas as only our Christmas should be. The swan, the signed ornaments and the topless Christmas tree.