Day 341 -- Christmas Tree

Tonight, I am thankful for our Christmas tree.

You see, we actually got it yesterday, but the whole thing was such a freaking disaster that I couldn't possibly have been sincere in my post if I were to have talked about it.

Let's see.  The darn thing wouldn't stand up straight in the tree stand.  It leaned and wobbled precariously forward or to the left.  As we ate pizza in the kitchen (a tradition on the night of trimming the tree), Breslin casually remarked to us, "Hey, the tree fell over."  Indeed, when we got to the living room, there was the tree, lying on its side, tree stand still boldly attached.

Luckily at this point there were no ornaments to crash and destroy on the prostrate tree. 

We finally righted the tree, which resulted in Colby and I both sweating more than what's normal for being indoors in late November and not working out.  Each of us were covered in sap as well, and had taken many a branch in the eye.  It was not going well.  We were dirty, annoyed, and half blind.  But, we cleaned ourselves up, put smiles on our faces, and decorated our tree with ornaments until every branch was saturated.

When we went to water our tree, we both thought that it was pretty thirsty until Colby realized that there was a crack in the tree stand.

You do realize that this meant all of the straightening, tightening, and sweating was for nothing, don't you?

We tried to improvise. 

We sawed off the top of a Rubbermaid container to place the base in, but it wasn't big enough. 

We tried to ease a garbage bag around the base, but we couldn't get it to go over it without rocking the tree significantly. 

You might have guessed it by now.  During this last attempt at solving the problem (all Colby's idea, by the way), the tree fell over, complete with all of its breakable, fragile, heavily-laden-with-sentimental-value ornaments.

It wasn't our finest moment.  We put the kids to bed.  I cried.  Colby said some choice phrases.

We took whatever ornaments hadn't fallen off in the debacle from the tree and placed them safely in a container in another room.

Then we put the tree in an old, dilapidated five gallon bucket and leaned it against the wall.

And that's where it remained until late this afternoon, when armed with a new tree stand, we tried again.

I wish I could just tell you that the new stand made all of the difference, but that would be a lie.  Colby still struggled to straighten and tighten.  There was an equal amount of sweating done and choice phrases uttered, if not more. 

But I'm thankful that after everything we've been through with this tree, it is now standing straight and tall in a base that is not leaking.  It has lights, but no ornaments yet.  I'm sitting in my living room with all of the lights off, listening to some beautiful piano arrangements of traditional Christmas carols and hymns and I am poignantly aware that what seemed like such a big hairy deal yesterday is really nothing worth even complaining about, not with so many out there facing real trials, going through things infinitely more difficult than a Christmas tree that refuses to cooperate.

I am thankful that I was given some perspective and that this period of  perceived difficulty seems to be over, at least for the time being.

Thank God for our Christmas tree!

Lord, thank you that our Christmas tree is now standing up.  Thank you for giving me perspective tonight.  Help me to be grateful for how small my problems are compared to those others face.  In your name I pray, Amen.