Uh oh Christmas Tree

We finally managed to find the time to get out the Christmas Tree last night. We had to move one of our DVD racks into another room in order to set up the tree. Everything went well.........until we came to the bottom row of branches. We started placing that row of branches only to discover a problem. The plastic ring that holds that row of branches has a crack in it, so it will not stay in place once branches are loaded into it. We have attempted to glue it with Gorilla Glue, but if that doesn't hold it, I guess we'll just set the tree up without those bottom branches. It will probably look a little odd, but if it's not too odd looking then we will be okay with it. I personally am not overly fond of perfectly shaped Christmas trees, because you sure don't find "perfect" ones in nature.

I've been trying to remember exactly how old this tree is. I believe this would be it's 15th year of service. Not only has it done it's job during those years, but it has also been thru 3 moves. In that time it has not always been treated gently I'm sure. I know there are many who are resistant to artificial Christmas trees, but to me the pros outweigh the cons. I like the cost effective aspect, and the convenience. Probably the two biggest pros to me would be that an artificial tree doesn't need watering nor does it drop needles like crazy. I always hated the dropped needles. I swear I would still be finding and vacuuming up needles in July. Then there is the disposal of the tree after Christmas. When I was a kid we would buy a bagged tree rather than a cut one. This would allow us to plant the tree in our yard after we were done with it. I remember my dad digging the hole for the tree in the fall before the ground froze.

The only real con I can see regarding an artificial tree would be the lack of a smell. I love the way the house is filled with that "pine" smell during the Christmas season. So to give my house that smell, I buy pine scented candles to burn. I also buy air freshener that smells like pine or other similar products that impart the pine scent. I have a bottle of a product called "Just Cut" that I believe I picked up in the Christmas aisle. It seems I'm not the only one who's fond of this smell.

We will begin decorating our tree sometime this evening, if all goes to plan. That is assuming that our lights all light up. Lights held us up last year. We got the tree all set up and starting decorating only to discover that about half of our light didn't work. This was not a case of a burned out bulb here and there. I believe we use 6 strands of lights on the tree. Since half of them wouldn't work I had to purchase new strands before we could decorate. Of course once I accomplished that we were able to go ahead with our decorating.