The weekend after Thanksgiving is Tree Time for our family. J is a purist when it comes to Christmas trees. No artificial trees, no flocking, no messing around. We buy a real tree every year.
Real trees smell so good that I overlook the needle trail that inevitably develops from our dining room to the other rooms of our house. I would probably not mind the needle trail so much if I had a vacuum cleaner that was not a piece of junk.
We trimmed the tree last night so a huge pile of needles had formed on the tree skirt. I thought nothing of it because I’d just suck them up with the vacuum’s hose. No problem, right? My vacuum cleaner thought otherwise… The hose decided to become plugged or something because there was barely any suction going on when I went to clean up the needles. Sweet! There was just enough pull to fill the hose with a handful of needles. They were immediately dumped back onto the floor when I gave up the cause.
I still thought that it was no big deal because we have the Shop-Vac. I’m kind of anal about neatness, can you tell? J promptly informed me, amid my vacuum-related curses, that the Shop-Vac was out of commission as well. Awesome! So, we have a needle-laden tree skirt that I will be forced to hide under a myriad of packages.
It’s really not a big deal. I know that. It’s just that every time I go to use the darn vacuum cleaner something breaks or falls off of it. I want to drop it off the bridge. I was going to say that it sucks but it does not, in fact, suck. I’m witty like that…
Anyhoo, like I said, we decorated the tree last night. The boys loved checking out all of the ornaments that they hadn’t seen in a year. We only had one ornament casualty. We lost our lovely glass alligator to a rowdy preschooler and the kitchen tile. It was bound to happen. This photo was taken shortly before the alligator met his demise…
This little dude was not the culprit in the ornament's demise...
Wildman’s favorite ornament this year is a Hot Wheels one that I picked up at Hallmark last year. I had to keep reminding him to quit messing with it because he’d damaged the green car last year and now it flies completely off the ramp when you press the button. This means that the green car goes shooting off into the room and will probably get lost. Lost but not sucked up in the vacuum cleaner. Ha!
Cutie Pie enjoyed putting his homemade ornament (post to follow) on the tree. He was so proud of himself! I love it!
My favorite ornament is Cousin Eddie’s RV. Such a classic.
Hey, another way I’ve discovered for our house to smell like pine is to use this stuff. It’s so awesome and not completely overpowering like some piney- scented products.
Lights on the house? Check! Tree purchased? Check! Tree trimmed? Check!
Now, I’m off to tackle the family photo for the Christmas cards…
Adventures of Four 