It's a week before Christmas and all thru the house...

I stopped at Home Depot Thursday night to get a tree. I wanted a big one for my first Christmas in my new home. I found a stunning tree in the 7'-8' bin so I grabbed it...or at least I tried. That sucker was HEAVY! I went to the front to get one of the employees to help me. We muscled it up front to have the trunk trimmed and to pay for it. They loaded it in the car and away I went...now how am I going to get that monster out of the car much less in the house??? Well I struggled for sure. I managed to get it leaning against one of the front columns and into a pan of water. I figured I'd get it in the house on Friday.

Friday came and I couldn't find my tree stand so off to Kmart I went for that and LED lights. Got 4 boxes of 75 lights. The tree stayed outside another night...

Saturday morning I decided to give it the old yankee try and muscle the tree into the house. I first put the stand on...having to shave down some of the branch nubs with a saw first.Then screwed in the 8 tree stand screws as far as I could get them. I did manage to drag it into the house, shedding needles all the way, but could I stand it up? Not a chance. I tried every McGiver trick in the book short of block and tackle...and I did think about that. But I chose to beg the help of my neighbor with a tray of holiday cookies instead. Jeff came over and we hefted that monser upright. Yep even Jeff commented "my, what a LARGE tree you have!". Oh well, next year I will be more sane in my choice. But it sure is pretty!!! I had to go back for more lights. The 4 strings I bought barely covered the top third of the tree...Bought 2 more boxes of LEDs and added a 100-string set I had on hand. It has ~500 lights on it now but it needs more. I will snag a few strings from Mom tomorrow since she's not putting up a tree.

Happy Holidays!

Sue