A sling & a prayer

Maybe not a favorite, but defineately a most memorable Christmas memory is one of our first together.

Hubby & I had been married for a couple of years. We'd been living in this old rental house and prior to the season had searched for, let's say, an upgrade in living arrangements.

We looked at some nice places but nothing was open for moving in. We couldn't find anything e loved enough to commit to buying either.

Holiday time rolled around & our search turned from new homes to Christmas trees. As has become our annual family tradition, we traveled to our favorite tree farm, traversed acres of tree rows and hunted that year's perfect tree.

We cut it, hauled it back to the bagging station, loaded it on top of the car, drove home, drug it up the stairs, set it up, strung the lights and hung the decorations. It was beautiful.

Within the week we received the call that one of the places we'd looked at had unexpectedly become available. There were other people wanting the new place so we had to act then or lose out on the deal.

Boxes were packed, address notifications were sent and yes...down came the tree & ornaments were carefully wrapped and put away.

We were off to our new home, and right before Christmas. How exciting!

That was the first & only time I can say I have ever moved a Christmas tree.

There was lots of craziness & hurried unpacking in attempt to reestablish some symblence of normalcy before Christmas.

Do you know how hard it is to place a Christmas tree into a stand, with any stability, a second time? Nature just doesn't grow a perfect trunk. At least not that year. I mean after you have already drilled holes into the trunk in the one place that holds it straight the first time, it just ain't happening right again.

We tried. To get the tree straight meant placing the tree stand screws too close to the previously drilled holes. Move the screws far enough away from the previous holes and our tree looked like it was bending at the waist.

Finally! We found the spot. Perfect tree stand placement.The tree was rapped with lights again and up went the ornaments.

We were officially in our new home. Bring on the holiday.

At some point that same night my husband & I were awakened from our peaceful slumber by the sounds of shattering ornaments as the tree crashed to the floor in the next room.

Standing half asleep, half in disbelief, my husband unplugged the tree, made sure there were no fires about to disrupt and we stumbeled, disappointed, back to bed.

The next morning we cleaned up the mess, salvaged what ornaments we could. Fought the trunk/tree stand battle to no avail and then fashioned a sling from twine rope that wrapped around the upper part of the tree trunk and hooked to a nail in the wall of our new home.

That was our Christmas tree. Once statuesque, now balanced in a tree stand on a prayer and a makeshift sling. At the time we were mortified that this is what our symbol of Christmas had deteriorated into. Now, we just laugh and chalk it up to the many curves one gets thrown in life.

Merry Christmas everyone. Maybe next post I'll recount the story of how my husband ended up in the rosebushes while hanging light on the roof of our house.

Anyone else have a crazy Christmas tale to tell?

I look forward to reading them, feel free to share.

D