I was so impressed with my fellow NaBloPoMo-er Solitary Diner, who got rid of her Christmas tree this year as part of her impressive decluttering efforts. Just as she was getting rid of her tree...we were buying a new one.
We can't have a real tree, much to Katr's chagrin, because I am a special snowflake who is allergic to nature. We bought our pre-lit faux tree back in 2003 and it served us well until the end of 2014, when it looked like this:
After attempts to relight this tree utterly failed, we gave it the old heave-ho and then, for two years, did not have a tree at all for two reasons, both of which appear conveniently in the following photo.
That's right - we had a little puppy and the house was stuffed with hundreds of shoeboxes. Last year, Effie probably could have handled the tree, but last year's Shoebox Project was the most successful yet and that meant that every inch of floor space was occupado. But, after five years of shoebox lurve, we're taking a break from it and that means we had room for a BRAND NEW TREE!! We decorated it yesterday.
It was so fun to see all of our ridiculous and pretty and super old ornaments come out of the boxes that Katr packed up so meticulously back in 2014. We have a lot of great ornaments from all stages of our lives, but probably my favourite is an ornament that I made in kindergarten, which my parents gifted to me when they moved and decided to go treeless.
It is made of pasta, beans and glue and it basically looks like a pool of vomit encased in a green ribbon. FEAST YOUR EYES.
I love that some crafty teacher put these materials together and thought "These are what memories are made of." And almost 40 years laters, that teacher was right.
Anyway, I thought there was going to be a point to this post, but I think it's just me bragging about having the time and space this year to put up a tree. SO FESTIVE!!
Question for the tree-having members of the class - what's the weirdest ornament on your tree this year?
