Unbelievable!

I wanted a Christmas tree and said yesterday morning that I might get one. As it turns out, this isn't an easy task less than 10 days before Christmas.

The easiest part was buying the tree. At the nursery just around the corner from my house, I found a lovely 7-8 footer for half price at only $37.50. The place was nice enough to deliver the tree to my house so I didn't have to sully my beloved car (though I do adore driving a Christmas tree home in December in a convertible with the top down).

I was sure I had a Christmas tree stand at home, but could not find it. Locating a stand in the retail world was no easy feat, requiring trips to two different Target stores and, ultimately, a Home Depot store where I purchased a used display model for one dollar.

Finding white lights also carried a high difficulty rating. There were multi-colored lights, blue lights and button lights in pearl or satin finishes, but no plain white mini-lights. At long last, I was able to find what was literally the last set of white mini-lights in two large Target stores near my house.

Wrestling the thick-trunked tree into the stand proved to be a challenge with no other human around to hold the trunk upright. But I'm proud to say that I ultimately prevailed in this battle, though the star tree-topper is a little "scrunched" against the ceiling.

My favorite part of holiday decorating is pulling out all of my Christmas ornaments and other thingamabobs. Each one has a memory attached and I revel in remembering.

This morning, I pulled the vacuum cleaner out of the closet to try to pick up all the fallen needles. And there I found my tree stand.



Now if only the vacuum would work and I could find the Christmas tree skirt . . .