Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree!

So for quite a while now we've had an artificial tree in our house during Christmas. Well because of our remodeling project the tree was put in the garage for a year AND the lid was left open during that time (don't ask me why.... I'm not really sure how that happened). Anyway I was afraid to put the tree up. I was worried we would find a family of mice or a snake!  So I talked Jon into getting a real tree this year. I also thought it would be the start of a new family tradition.  So, the Friday after Thanksgiving we went to pick out and cut down our real Christmas tree! We had a fun time trying to pick just the right one. We brought it home, set it up and proceeded to decorate it. I'll be honest I didn't really like it. It took up so much room in the living room and it was bigger than our fake tree so all our ornaments looked pretty sparse on this new tree (just call me the Grinch)! Well by Wednesday afternoon I wasn't feel very well. Thursday, Will and I both went to the doctor. Will was diagnosed with strep throat so the doctor just treated us the same. By Friday afternoon Will was feeling much better - me not so much. I was sick all the way up to Saturday. We had several things planned for both Friday & Saturday that I ended up missing or rescheduling.  It wasn't until Saturday afternoon when Charlie was trying to give the Christmas tree a drink that I realized it was the tree making me sick. I called my mom to ask if that was possible, to which she responded "you were the reason we could never have a real tree in the house!"  She informed me that it took them awhile to figure it out but once they had it made a big difference. So I called Jon to tell him about my discovery. Charlie and I undecorated the tree and waited until Jon got home so he could chuck it out the front window! So here it was all my idea to get a real tree and then it was all my fault we had to get rid of it! However, about a half an hour after throwing out the tree I felt SO much better!  Well, I was feeling really bad for the kids that we now had no Christmas tree.  The other day we had to go to walmart for a few things, so I decided to take a look at the artificial trees they had.  I really wasn't wanting to spend a lot of money or get a really big one - partly because I knew in a couple of weeks they would probably be half the price.  We finally found one - a 6 foot non pre-lit tree for $20! It's almost a real life version of a Charlie Brown Christmas tree!  However with our small living room it works perfect.  It doesn't take up a lot of space.  And so far I've only put the lights and ribbon on and it looks great.  I saved the ornaments for the boys to put on (hopefully tomorrow). The boys are happy there is a tree in the house again and I'm glad we found the perfect tree - just a little bummed we found out the hard way I'm still allergic to live Christmas trees!


After picking out and cutting down the tree.



The REAL tree up and decorated.


The new FAKE tree!


Comments

  1. pattiDecember 15, 2014 at 11:58 PM

    If you have a big crock or tub or maybe even a barrel put the real tree in it and set it outside on a porch or by the garage door and light it and set a timer on it so when you get home at night it will be lit.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I Love To Tell The Story

I kissed Jon good bye and slowly rode the escalator up to security.  The butterflies in my stomach were about too much to handle.  I was leaving all by myself to the She Speaks Conference - to say I was a little nervous might have been an understatement.  I knew that God had ordained this trip from the very beginning - every thing fell into place perfectly.  It just wasn't in God's plan for anyone to go with me.  I knew it was the best plan but it still didn't calm my nerves that early Thursday morning. I made it to security - took off my shoes, unloaded my quart size bag of liquids, put my bag on the conveyor belt and made my way through when I noticed my bag was pushed off to the side.  The following conversation happened with The TSA guy and myself. "Ma'am is that your bag?" "Yes." "Do you have anything sharp in your bag?" "Yes, my razor." Then he reaches into my bag - grabs any item I had packed and pulls it out. H...
Read more

Grieving Still

I love to read other people's blogs.  Sometimes I get neat ideas from them or at other times it's just fun to hear what is going on in that particular family.  I few months after TJ passed away I received an email from a friend of the family's to check out a certain blog.  This particular family had just lost their 15 year old son to pancreatic cancer.  I decided to go back to their caringbridge page to read more about their journey.  There were some similarities and some major differences, however, we have both experienced the loss of our sons WAY too early.  I love to read her blog because I can totally relate with her.  I almost feel as if everything she shares are my feelings as well.  She shared something on her blog the other day (something someone else had shared with her) and I hope you all don't take this the wrong way, (I'm sorry in advance) but  Our transition is still a grieving one. They are SPOT ON!...
Read more

A Much Too Familiar Road

Image
I've sat down at the computer for the last two days trying to put my thoughts together for this post, but the truth is I can't (and every time I start to type the tears begin to flow).  I'm having a hard time putting my thoughts into words - so please forgive me if this post is all over the place or a bunch of rambling.  Two years ago we made the decision to stop treatments and to come home to hospice.  Two years later (to the date) Jon's parents made the same decision.  Jon's Dad has been battling lung cancer for a little over a year now.  Two weeks ago he was admitted to the hospital for various reasons - and Monday they brought him home to start hospice care.  He wasn't home long when the decision was made to bring him to the Serenity House (almost two years to the exact day TJ was brought there).  I'm not going to lie - this hasn't been easy.  It just doesn't seem fair.  This road is all too familiar and I can't believe we are ...
Read more