Here's the story.
It all started with a trip to Lowe's to find a tree. We were looking for an 8-9 ft. tree, but Lowe's didn't have any of that size out, so we headed to Home Depot. We looked at a few different trees. I'm the kind of person that the Christmas-tree-workers hate. I like to open as many trees as possible in order to find the perfect one. Because to me, there is such thing as a perfect tree. Tall and full with no open spots.
So we found a tree and they took it to the table to saw some of the trunk off and wrap it with the netting. Then they called me over and said, "Bad news. The trunk is split halfway up the tree so it's a bad tree. Go choose another one." Slightly disappointing, but this meant that I could open up more trees on my quest to finding the perfect one! So we opened a few more and chose another. That was Problem #1.
So they took some off of the trunk, wrapped it with the netting and secured it on the top of Dayna's car and went home. We took it up the stairs no problem and laid it down.
We had planned to watch the Rockefeller Christmas tree lighting on TV that night so we turned it on and took a little break. After watching Michael Buble's awkward singing moment, we mustered up the strength to put this tree in its stand, only to find out that the tree was entirely too tall to fit into our apartment. So Dayna said, "Quick. We gotta get this tree back downstairs and have them cut more off." This would be Problem #2.
Mind you, it's like 8:45 at this point and Home Depot closes at 9:00, PLUS we had to strategically strap the tree back on to the car with plenty of string and bungee cords. So I call Home Depot really quick and tell them what's going on and ask them to please wait for us. Luckily it didn't take us long to strap the tree back on and even more lucky, Home Depot is less than a mile from where we live.
So we get there, take the tree back off the car, and the Christmas-tree-workers cut about 6 inches more off of the trunk. The guy asks me if I think that's enough. He whipped out his measuring tape and quickly measured it just to see. He said, "Well, with that much off, it's about 9.5 ft. right now." What??? The tag on the tree was marked 8-9 ft. which is the reason we picked it, but it was really 9-10 ft.! It was marked wrong!!! No doubt, Problem #3.
So we take the tree back home. Repeating what we just did about an hour before. Immediately we attempt to put it in the tree stand. We muster up our strength again (and at this point we're pretty exhausted!) only to find out the trunk won't fit in the stand we have. Are you kidding me?!?! Most definitely another problem, Problem #4.
Dayna was ready to just leave it laying on the floor for the night; she was over it at this point. But I thought we really should just go and get the tree stand and be done with it, especially because it would need water. Walmart or Target aren't far away. So we went to Target, got the tree stand and thankfully, the tree fit!
Needless to say, this is the way our tree remained for the rest of the night. We didn't have the motivation to decorate it after all of that chaos, plus needing to wake up for work the next morning.
So, there you have it... the story of why getting a Christmas tree this year wasn't exactly what you'd call an easy, pleasant experience. :)
Friday night we decorated.
And here is the final product, after all the effort put into making it fit, both underneath the ceiling and in the tree stand! :)
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