One Step Forward, Two Steps Back... Christmas Tree Set Up

In true holiday fashion, every year I drag my hubby and my in-laws to the local fire department to pick out the BEST Christmas tree that they have. I normally take about 45 minutes to an hour checking out their inventory. This year I recruited the firefighters to follow me around the lot pulling out each tree, spinning it and putting it back. My spec's for a tree are quite intense. The tree must be triangular, full, about 6.5 ft in height and have NO holes or sharp needles. You would think that it would be easy to find but no ma'am.  I need the BEST tree for our family. I'm sure you all go through this every year, right? ;)

This year, after about 35 minutes of searching, the firefighter pulled out this one tree, it was perfect in shape, fullness and height! It was our tree. I couldn't believe it, and in record time too!  I knew because, the white light came from behind the tree and "Santa Claus is coming to Town" started playing.

Dramatic, I know, but it feels good to get what i want. :))

"Ill take it," I said.

"Really? This is the one?" the guy asked me in disbelief.

"Yes, that is our tree!!"

With a sigh of relief, he cut the end off and we were off!

Now comes the set up.... LOL... this is where it gets good. We have a great stand, it has an area that fills with water to weigh the tree stand down.  So we begin to fill it up and pour more and more water in there.  We put the tree in and turn the 4 prongs to get the tree to stand upright.  My father in-law was holding the tree and my hubby turning and turning away.  Ok, the time comes for father in-law to let go, TIMBER!  The tree fall over.  It wouldn't stand up.  Come to find out, despite the gorgeous shape, etc of the tree the trunk looks like a snake making it fall over every which way we situate it in the stand. LOL. What comes next??

Well my Father in-law goes to driveway to get some gravel, yup gravel, in my house, to dump in the stand to hold the tree up.  Ok, fine whatever it takes... even though he is dumping gravel all over my floor.  Take two of the holding and turning the prongs...Did it work?? NO! Oh my, what are we going to do?? 

Long story short, we ended up having to hang the the mama jamma tree from the CEILING!  The Ceiling!! I have never heard of this before, Mr. Tree left us with no choice. After an hour of trying to stand our "perfect" tree up, we ended up hanging it from the ceiling. Unbelievable.

Next came the lighting of the tree.  Did you know that not all LED lights are created equal??  Nope.  Each lights a different color and shade.  I found this out after systematically placing the LED lights that I had from last year on the tree.  My 2 year old, my hubby and I counting down to plug in the lights to see the beauty that was our tree...

3, 2, 1...Ahhhhh.... all different colors!!

I simply couldn't keep it as it.... I had to unwrap all the systematically placed lights, run to Kmart and get different lights, re-wrap the tree, count down to plug in again and what.... they were all different colors again... OMG, by this point I was ready to scream.  Of course, my hubby was reminding me that none of this would happen if we had an artificial tree.  All I wanted was a perfect xmas tree and to have my family take part in the fun of putting it all together.

I felt like Chevy Chase in Christmas Vacation...

I needed a break.  Came back to this project later on that evening by myself with a glass of wine to sooth the nerves.  I had found another box of mini lights in the basement that matched some of the other lights I had around the house.  I wrapped the tree by myself and waiting for the fam to do the ornaments.  It came out as beautiful as I had expecting in the beginning. 

HARD WORK but it paid off.

Do any of you make a production out of getting and decorating your tree??  OR have you had a hell of a time getting the tree just the way you wanted it??  or am I just to OCD??

~Kim