Griswald Family Christmas-The End

I hope ya'll have had a good chuckle at our expense. No hard feelings at all! We have laughed so much this month and it has just made our Christmas memories for this year so much more awesome!

David has been off for the last 5 days so I took a break from the computer and enjoyed my time with him and the kids. I just love my family!

I guess I'll finish up our tree story now. :)

This is where the disappointment comes into play.

After we got the tree tied up and totally decorated it stayed that way for about a week. David and I both noticed that the tree kinda looked puny. I had been adding water to it regularly but had noticed that she didn't seem to be drinking in as much water as before and her bristles, thistles or whatever you call them were starting to point down. They kinda looked like the Grinch's fingers. You know.....long, green and curling downward. When I went to feel the tree, she was sooo dry even though she had water in her bucket. When I say dry, I mean drrrrrryyyyyyyyy. I couldn't believe it! This tree felt like what a tree feels like when you've had it for a month and AFTER Christmas and we had only had it for about a week and a half. She was still green though! Does that count?

I was so sad. Every day it seemed to get worse. It got to the point where I was afraid to leave the Christmas lights on. Seriously. I was afraid she would go up in flames. OH and you could forget about using the fireplace! She would for sure turn into a fiery inferno! I told David that there was no way I could have a completely dead tree for Christmas. No way could the kids be stabbed to death pricked getting their presents under the tree on Christmas morning. Instead of hearing squeals of joy, we would be hearing "Ooow, I'm bleeding" or "There's a green thing stuck in my arm. I need tweezers" or "I need a band aid" OR (insert incredible loud and dramatic crying)"The tree poked my eye out!". Can't you just imagine! It really was that bad!

She just wasn't holding up her end of the bargain.

First, all of her branches were pointing down. Second, the tree looks pregnant. Third, the ribbon did NOT look like it was supposed to because as Allison put it "your tree is just too dang big (LOL)" and there was an unmentioned 18 month old that kept messing with it. Fourth, the bow had been thrown up on the top because I couldn't reach the top and the ribbon around the top had been strategically placed there with BBQ grill tongs. Fifth, she had "droppings" all over the floor. Yes, I could go on.



So, it was decided that she had to come down. We were sad and once again, Allison came over and helped us unload the tree. I have THE BESTEST SISTER!!! The tree was a lot lighter this time around. HA!
We took the tree down and out the front door of the house and it made a mega massive mess! I should have listened to David and taken it out the back door but I was afraid it wouldn't fit. The mess would have been A LOT less! I guess we are even now on the not listening aspect of our drama! LOL!









There was an inch thick of dead tree carnage in this picture. Oh and by the way, if you have frieza carpet...you'll be forever vacuuming up Leland Cypress needles. Those things are stuck in the fibers of the carpet.



R.I.P Beautiful Gigantor! She has now been dumped in an undisclosed location.



The next morning, we got the fake tree up and she looks beautiful! Not as grand as Gigantor but still beautiful and she looks just like the picture I had envisioned in my head! When the kids came home from school they asked me if our fake tree had shrunk since last year! HAHAHAAAA!



That's it...the end! I have been advised that we will NEVER EVER EVER do that again! We will get a real tree again, but maybe next time we won't cut it down ourselves and we'll just stick with the pre-cut Frasier firs. We've had many laughs this month and have loved the whole experience but the mess she made getting her out of the house did it for me! Can you imagine if we had waited until after Christmas to take her out? What kind of mess would we have had then? WOW! We have definitely learned some lessons this year but honestly, I wouldn't have traded ANY of this whole experience for the world!!

The kids have half a day of school tomorrow and I'm so excited! I can't wait for them to have two whole weeks off and us just do nothing but have fun, bake goodies and go look at Christmas lights! I love this time of the year and with the weather being as cold as it has been here, which is NOT normal, it has made it feel way more Christmasy!

Blessings to each of you!! :)