I was ready to just give up for the year, content to put my gifts into some large decorated box or wagon, or even the wheelbarrow, but Danny said no. He wanted a tree. Well, after the live tree experiment I was against paying any money for a live tree preferring to drop my investment into something I could reuse; finding one at the thrift store meant we also donated so that was the way to go.
After a few false starts we finally found a perfect, if somewhat different, replacement for our old beloved antique tree. We are now the proud owners of a 7.5 foot pencil Christmas tree.
The skinny part was hard to get over, but now that all the ornaments are installed and the lights have all been rejuvenated (I can only rave about the light tester gun we bought) everything looks 100% lovely (a long way from the pathetic thing it was with 1 strand of working lights). I like how tall it is; our old ones were always short and fat. I like that it doesn't take up so much room and it's easier to reach the top because your stool or ladder closer at the bottom. Plus it was quicker to decorate. We only used half the amount of ornaments as before, yet the tree is packed!
So I'm now officially ready for Christmas.
