Whoah!! Christmas Tree!!

Well we got our Christmas tree today and let me tell you, it's mammoth.  We've nicknamed it the Giant Beast and I think that accurately captures the essence of the tree.

I didn't set out to get a big tree; I wanted a modest six footer that would fit nicely into our post-war veteran's house.  Alas the place I got the tree from was sold out of the nice sized ones and so I had a decision.  I could have drove elsewhere looking for a little bit of a smaller tree and be end up getting home later than I wanted or I could grab what I thought was a good sized one from the store I was at and be happy with it.  I did the latter - I picked one that fit in my little hatchback and away I went.

It seems much bigger in my living room than it did on the lot, and judging by my wife's shocked silence, it was a wee bit larger than she was expecting.  We had trouble deciding where to put it.  We tried the dining room and unfurled its branches...but it didn't quite work there.  So we moved it to the living room and in so doing messed up its placement in the tree-stand (which I suspect is a bit small for the size of tree we have).  We fiddled and fussed and generally worked up a sweat trying to keep this behemoth from falling over...so far so good. 

The girls were ecstatic.  When questioning if it was too big, Noli very confidently said, "No Daddy, it's beautiful."  Evie couldn't wait to decorate and asked about a million times if she could start while I was under the tree getting needles in my ears, eyes and mouth while trying to make the tree straight and secure.  I'm tempted to say that setting up the tree was a pain in the neck at the risk of sounding like Scrooge.  I have to admit though, my spirits though dampened by the extraneous effort on the tree were still buoyed by the festive mood of the night and the joy of my girls.

I had to stand on a chair to reach the top and I regret that the girls couldn't put the star on top this year.  Last year I held both of them up at the same time and they did it together.  This year, what with the size of the tree (not to mention the girls are bigger than last year) I couldn't get them close enough without risking knocking the tree down.  So we set up Christmas-star chain.  Noli passed it to Evie who passed it to me and I held it high for Mommy and Mimi to behold its beauty before I placed it neatly on top.  Everyone was very happy.

Whew!!  What an adventure!  But it stands (and hopefully stays up - I'm taking bets on who will
 knock it down first, our dog Chief or Mimi, my 10 month old) and it's beautiful.