Christmas at Spring Maples the 2010 Edition: Part 2

 As mentioned in my previous post, Christmas 2009 was my first Christmas as the mistress of Spring Maples. I was a brand new home-owner and feeling awfully advantageous, so I decided to tackle two full-sized, live Christmas trees. It was a perfect plan--I could use my ornaments on one tree, my grandmother's on the other, and a tree in both front windows would make for symmetrical lighting from the exterior.

This year, I was not so motivated. I HATE putting the lights on trees more than anything, and the thought of putting lights on two trees was more than I could handle. So, since I was only doing one tree this year, I wanted a REALLY BIG ONE. I went to Simmon's Tree Farm in Bedington and found this doozy (pictured right): think it's big enough?

I also felt inclined to saw it down myself. Let's just say Paul Bunyanain't got nothin' on me!

My mom helped me drag the tree to the truck (hijacked from the dear little brother), and one of the tree farm workers helped us strap it in the bed.

Now if there's one thing I've learned about myself, it's that every project I tackle is always an adventure (read: disaster). Less than a mile from the tree farm I was cruising along at a whopping 30MPH, and next thing I know the tree was flying out the back of the truck. OOPS! Fortunately, the only person behind me was an incredibly awesome Frontier employee who not only had enough sense to keep his distance, but he stopped and helped us re-secure the tree back into the truck. Ten miles and 20 minutes later, we finally made it home; however, the fun wasn't over.

Once I started trimming the bottom branches off, I quickly realized that the tree was too big for any of the tree stands I had around the house. I sent Mom on a mission for a bigger one, and I continued to hack away at the bottom of the tree. 

 

She returned with a jumbo tree stand, which fit; however, the trunk of the tree was soft, so instead of supporting the tree, the screws from the stand just kept digging into the trunk. Mom held the tree upright while I placed a frantic call to my grandfather. He came down right away with several pieces of wood, which were just what we needed!

Truth: I'm a little late on this post. I've had the tree up since the first week in December, but better late than never, right? As painful as the tree-getting experience was, putting the lights on was physically even more painful (it's a Scotch Pine, I'm heading to Bliss after this post to try and salvage my hands). BUT, the tree is lit, decorated, and Tiger has "watered" it more time than I even want to discuss.

Tonight or tomorrow I'll conclude my Christmas mini-series with the grand final--everything is all lit up! I'm pretty sure I'm sending the entire electric company on va-cay this year.