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Getting Up The Christmas Tree

Decent Essays

“I’m tempted to just go buy one of those pre-lit trees,” I announced to my son. I was gathering my coupons to go Christmas shopping when I ran across a flyer from a craft store advertising pre-lit Christmas trees for 50% off the regular price. It sounded like a pretty good deal to me, in more ways than one. Unfortunately, putting up the Christmas tree has never been a joyful experience in our family. When the boys were young, we tromped through the woods to cut the obligatory Charlie Brown spindly pine or the lopsided cedar tree. When it came to paying for a live Christmas tree, my husband quickly vetoed that idea every year. So we had settled on artificial Christmas trees as the years went by, “fake” trees that with only a little effort from the boys to drag down from the attic, I could handle myself. I had bought our latest tree a few years ago at a thrift store and had actually been pleased with the way it assumed its honored spot near the front window in our den. But I knew that the only way the tree could adorn that special spot in our house with the awe and majesty of the season was if I did the work to make it beautiful. And truthfully, I just wasn’t in the mood. The worst part to me, the very worst part, was stringing the lights on the tree. I had tried my best to organize my Christmas lights when I had taken them off the tree last year. I had checked them once, and then checked them again, to make sure they were working properly when I put them away. But I

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