HERE COMES CHRISTMAS!!!
Yes, I know. We haven't had Thanksgiving yet. Which is why I have to tell you the funniest story behind our "fake" tree, and why I'm putting up Christmas this week. Let me take you back to our first year of marriage...
This was also the first year I experienced being the wife of an AAU basketball coach. Well, it was always tradition in my house growing up that we decorated the house for Christmas the weekend right after Thanksgiving. But apparently basketball people don't care much about my personal holiday traditions, and in our first year of marriage I discovered that there was an out of state basketball tournament scheduled the day after Thanksgiving and through the weekend. No thank you. I did not want to go and support my husband's coaching, I wanted to stay home and put up Christmas! So, I rebelled and I pouted and I stayed home. And then I did what any rational wife would do. I went to Lowes and bought the biggest, most grandest synthetic Christmas tree I could find, and was determined to put it up all by myself. But there was one tiny little problem. I bought a 9 foot tree and we only had 8 foot ceilings. Just a minor mishap I concluded. I decided to not be deterred in my effort to have the most beautifully decorated Christmas home by the time my husband got back Sunday evening. That way I could prove my point that I was justified in not going to the tournament. In other words, you better believe I tried my best to smash and squash that tree into place. And yes, it ended up looking just like you are picturing. It didn't quite come to a nice triangular point at the top. Rather it looked more like something went horribly wrong about 3/4 of the way through. And never mind any space for a star on top. Well, eventually over the weekend I rounded up someone to saw off the top of the tree. It still looked quite disproportional, but at least now it fit in the house. And Jake did come home to a Christmasy decorated home - complete with the focal point of an obnoxious, ginormous, non-symmentrical tree jammed into our living room.
Now every year as I put up this same tree, I unfold all the branches and giggle as I think back to the story behind it and of how God has grown me up since then. And yes, I learned my lesson. Now I always decorate our house BEFORE Thanksgiving so I am free to sit at basketball games the weekend after - without being mad that I'm not home decorating for Christmas. :)
