When I was very young...around 3 or 4 years old...I had a serious allergic reaction to our family's real Christmas tree. I have a very vague recollection of waking in the middle of the night struggling to breath. The next thing I recall I was sitting in the emergency room with my parents. I remember being very scared. Thankfully my parents got me to the hospital in time, the allergy shots quickly went into gear and I was fine.
Having this allergic reaction resulted in our family having to get an artificial tree. To this day I have never had a real tree in any of my homes. But I don't regret it. I do enjoy how a real tree can look...we have many friends who trek out every year to the tree farm and get these sweet, sometimes 'Charlie Brownish' looking trees. They look very sweet. But as for my family we have the good, old fashioned fake tree. But I truly don't mind!
My daughter and I get into the holiday decorating mode the day after Thanksgiving. My husband and our two sons go up to their friends' hunting camp for a couple of days while we stay home and set the stage for the upcoming holidays. We don't need to rely on any man's muscle to stuff the tree into our van, drag the tree home, carry it into our house and complain as they set it up. We simply go down to our basement, unpack it piece by piece and get it done on our own! Yes, we are women...here us roar!
Over the years my kids have complained about having an artificial tree exclaiming that they'd like a real one. But honestly, once we get our tree up it looks so beautiful! Here's a photo from Christmas a couple of years ago:
Ahhh! I just love looking at that picture! In my opinion it oozes the essence of this sweet and wonderful season!
Aside from the fact that I'm never in the mood to deal with a serious allergic reaction I really do love artificial Christmas trees. I've heard people complain that they can be a bit pricey when you first purchase one, but over time they definitely pay off. Plus they are beautifully shaped and the size is included on the box and, if you prepare yourself, you figure out what size will fit your home. Our friends always guess at what size they need and, over the years, they've gotten a few that we were too tall and they ended up having to cut off the tree tops. Another positive point in favor of an artifical tree is you don't have to worry about watering it. Needles don't fall all over the place as the tree dries out. And one year I recall another family we are friends with brought a few bugs in with ther tree! Yuck!
We've had prelit trees since they came out with them a few years ago. One year we pulled our tree out, put it together and plugged it in. And guess what? The lights didn't work! Now mind you, I was all snuggled up at home and wasn't about to run to the store and try to find a new tree after putting this one up. So I went down to our basement found a couple strings of old lights and put them on the tree. Voila! We were set!
In my opinion there are many more positives to having an artificial tree. They're always gorgeous, less expensive in the long run, safer from fire hazards and we don't need any men around to help us carry it home and set it up!
So as the days get shorter, the nights get longer and the weather starts to get much cooler my excitement starts to rev up. Halloween is right around the corner and then Thanksgiving. Before we blink it will be that time again and I can hardly wait!
But okay...I've been focusing lately in living in the present moment! I'll try to enjoy the here and now and not get too far ahead of myself. But every once in a while I can daydream about what's ahead, right?
Well, I better get in gear as I have a busy day. I'm sure I'll have more to share soon. Until then,
