The Tree is ... Up?

A couple years ago Steve and I agreed that putting up and taking down our (very nice) artificial X-mas tree was too much work. We sorted through our decorations and sent a couple of boxes to family members with little children who set up trees.

No regrets there. So far, so good.

This year there was an extra set of muscles in the house. Steve asked that the tree and accessories be dragged out, all three humongous totes' worth, and set up in the dining room corner of the living room. Someone wasn't in the best mood that morning, but the tree went up. Kinda.  The branches were stabbed into the slots where they belonged, but only after much grumbling about how complicated it was. It didn't seen to be the right exact time to point out that they were usually sorted out into the various color-coded markers for each level, branches fluffed out so the tree looked filled and there were multiple spots for lights and ornaments to hang, and then stabbed in place, one color/level at a time, starting from the bottom so we didn't have to get way down to find the slots.  Usually, I might add, it was done with much less vehemence. Also with enough attention to the slots each clicked down into to be secure against bumps or whatever.

OK, the tree got up. You can  probably guess how it looked. Steve and I decided to fix it a bit later. After all, our helper had done the heavy lifting. Literally. I'd categorize it under creative incompetence, however - the kind that is meant to persuade others that this task should never be assigned to them again. You know, like the person assigned to doing the dishes who leaves them streaked, greasy, and anything but clean. Maybe even a broken one here and there, just in case we hadn't noticed the job wasn't getting done.

The next day I returned from wherever I'd been to find that Steve had been taking branches out and fluffing them out. Most of the rows had been sorted and replaced on the tree. More specifically, three bottom rows had been filled in, while the top section and a few more rows graced the top. He'd run out of steam at that point and passed on the rest of the job to me.

I viewed the area and decided the floor needed vacuuming to remove all those little green "needles" before the tree was finished and the floor couldn't be reached, backed into the corner as the tree was. I made one mistake, however. I tried to move the tree in its stand a few inches to the side so the vacuum had room.

Several things happened in the next half minute. The stand is one with four legs that only splay out when flat on the floor. Once raised up, they all try - usually successfully - to gather into one single point under the center. Not exactly a support for anything. I had to turn off the vacuum (why exactly had I been multitasking at this point?), grab the tree from falling over, change my grip to catch the top which was now completely separated from the adjacent section of trunk, let the lower section of the tree drop because the top needed two hands to support it although it wound up tip down on the floor anyway. In all the shifting and grabbing and re-grabbing, over three rows of branches fell out from where they hadn't been completely clicked in place and the bottom was lying on its side trying to occupy the same space as the tipsy turvey top.

Several choice words ensued, branches were snatched up and tossed aside so the big parts could be relocated to where they were accessible for when the entire project got restarted. Then there was the resorting by colors, the reshaping of the branches so one could pretend no mishaps had happened, and the third assembly of the tree.

This is where it got interesting. (What? Now? It wasn't already?) The bottom three rows of branches had pretty much remained attached to the trunk. Also, once the top was up, it turned out that several upper rows had at least one or two branches in place. I completed the vacuuming, and returned to making sense of the tree assembly. This involved filling in the middle once incomplete rows were filled in.

Hey, it was that or taking even more of the tree apart. At one point it looked so ridiculous that I got the camera out and took a shot. I'm tempted to put it on the X-mas card this year, maybe getting one of those set up for two photos, since I'd already planned the 1st photo since last year. This shot should fit right in, as the other is pretty bizarre - uh, unique in a southwestern desert sort of way - anyway.

Eventually all the branches got put in their proper spots. It was extra fun because the trunk pole is decorated with a long coil the the branch material, invariable hiding all the holes from view. 

The tree sat for two more days.

Today while I was gone to the club for 6 hours, including teaching a workshop, Steve got into the lights. The string(s) of miniatures are spread around the tree. The strings of bubblers, the must haves for any X-mas tree, aren't on yet. They didn't have the right plugs to attach to the regular ones, nor the right ones for the two-pronged wall hookup. I know there's another 2 prong / 3 prong adapter in the house somewhere, since other plugins in the house - not all, just some - are also 2 prongers. Wherever the adapter is, it's probably in use. We need to buy a new one or five, since this issue keeps recurring. Once we have that, the surge protector can plug into the wall outlet, the bubblers can chain into that, and the miniatures can chain either into the bubblers or down to the surge protector.

Do I hear "shopping trip tomorrow" anybody? I mean, Steve's gone back to bed, I'm wiped after finding out how many ways my students can misinterpret instructions for their project, and an early nap seems to be calling my name as well. Besides, it's time for the TV evening news followed by some thought given to a supper selection.

But the tree is up. Fingers crossed. Ho Ho H.......umbug!