Down Comes the Tree

Alas, after gracing our great room for the last three months, our Christmas tree was dismantled this weekend. We held out for as long as we could, but we couldn't deny the inevitable any longer. The tree wasn't taking water anymore, but the final straw was when one of the strings of lights on the tree stopped working last weekend. You know your tree has been up too long when a brand new string of lights burns out before you take the tree down. Either that, or the lights were cheap. (Probably the latter.) And yes, we still turned the lights on.

Since he happened to be visiting, Leif gave us a hand with the disassembly. We decided to cut off the lower (wider) branches before taking it out of the room, to make it easier to navigate down the hall and out the front door. When the tree was freshly cut, it was very pliable and easy to manage. Now, however, we were worried about leaving a trail of needles and branches leading all the way out the door.

By the time we got the tree out the door, it was getting late, it was raining, and we were getting tired. So we left the tree in pieces on our front steps. It would be another week before we were home during daylight hours to finish the job. And while the tree may now be gone, it is not forgotten; we'll get to enjoy it again next winter when it helps to heat our house.

- Mike (& Corinne)