Decking The Halls

The tree is now up. After all of the company left, and we gorged on leftovers- Matt dragged the tree out of the garage. We have had this tree for nine years. Nine years ago, we bought our first house. We didn't have much furniture, or much money, really (what else has changed?) and I remember driving to Sears and convincing the night manager to sell us a floor sample of a seven and half foot Douglas fir for dirt cheap.

Every year, for the last six years- Matt and I think this tree is headed to the dump. It sheds more fake needles than it has on it, and some of the branches are beyond fluffing. All of the lights were stripped off last year, and we wind old fashioned white lights in between spare branches to compensate for its Charlie Brownishness.

My Mom taught me a nifty trick that enables this tree to live on. After you get the lights on, and before you do anything else- do yourself a favor and go buy a slew of cheaply colored glass balls. Hang them on the INSIDE of your tree- in the center. This adds depth to the whole shebang- kind of like a collagen injection for your Meg Ryan of a tannebaum. 

So, every year, after I string the lights on, and fill up the inside branches with balls, and drape the garland on, and then load it up with my cherished baubles- the tree doesn't look half bad. It looks pretty good, really. So, we give the tree a reprieve, dim the lights and go watch "A Charlie Brown Christmas" special. Because out of all of the Charlie Brown christmas trees in the world, ours is the Charlie Browniest.