The annual Christmas Tree fight

I don't know what it is about Christmas lights, but they bring out the worst in Mike and me.

Our first year of marriage, we lived in a WT trailer house and the ceiling was low (our trailer wasn't one of those fancy ones with a vaulted ceiling). Mike knew that he needed to take some off the tree, so he did...

He didn't know that you can't take it off the top, so he fixed it...

I don't even remember being mad at him then, it was mostly just funny. The next few years pass just like that. There were annoying things that happened, I'm sure, but we just dealt with it.

Then you throw in a kid or two. The kind of kids that are at your feet, tripping you when you are trying to carry a huge tree up the stairs. Kids that ask a question every two seconds, not waiting for an answer before they ask another urgent question (or simply repeat the first question over and over in varying volumes.) That's when our Christmas tree squabbling began. We always have a really tall tree and we always struggled to get lights on the top branches. One year we got the bright idea to string the top lights while we were outside. We propped up the tree on the grass and stood on the deck to string it. That worked great. When we got it inside, and finished stringing on the lights, we went to plug it in and found that the lights were on backward. (You know, the way that makes it impossible to plug in unless you run an extension cord from the top) Even our neighbor Grizz couldn't help us out of that mess. (We call him Grizz, short for Grizwald, because his house at Christmas would put Clark Grizwald from the Christmas Vacation movie to shame).

This year, I wanted to try the deck thing again, but Mike had already lugged the tree up the stairs and didn't want to take it down, only to bring it back up again. I got stubborn (believe it or not, I do have a stubborn side) and carried the tree down by myself. Mike stood by, exasperated, and watched me struggle for a minute. Then he caved and helped me (all in my master plan). We made sure we started with the right end of the lights this time and got the top decorated. The tree tipped over on me once and Mike twice. The kids were under our feet trying to "help" and we were trying really hard not to lose our tempers.

We forced the tree into the house and all the lights we had strung got pulled off in the process, and the top bow had fallen off too. Oh well, SERENITY NOW!

We got the tree in place and I finished stringing the lights while Mike tried to get the kids to keep out from under the tippy tree.

Of course, I ran out of working lights half way down the tree (I now have 3 strands of lights that work half way!). So, Mike went to his favorite store, the Smithfield Implement and bought some more. Mostly to get out of the house.

He came back and told me the lights were 7 dollars a box. If any of you know Mike, you know that he loves to push people's buttons when they are already frustrated. He knew that I was still on edge from the stuff I had endured moments before and he decided to push my "frugal" button. I said I wasn't going to use 7 dollar a strand lights and that we'd have to wait till Monday when I could buy cheaper ones in Logan. He argued that the gas and extra trip to "town" would make the 2 dollar boxes more expensive...I shot back that 3 boxes of 7 dollar lights was worth going to town for cheaper ones...you get the point. He waited till I was really annoyed to tell me that they were really 3 dollars. What a turkey.

Shortly after that argument, we got back to the tree.

We approached the tree, that had been standing up fine for an hour, and it tipped over onto Mike, hit the ceiling fan, and all the decorations. That's when I shrieked and taught Jake one of my most used expletives.

Mike, who isn't the best at not using bad language, got after me for teaching the boy to swear...which made me indignant (as you can imagine).

It was all a fiasco. I think the tree tipped over 2 more times, and there were many more words uttered under my breath, but we got it done. I don't think the kids even knew we were under a lot of stress. If they did, it didn't stop them from prancing around and getting under our feet, climbing up the bar stools that we were standing on and trying their best to put us all in the emergency room.

Needless to say, the tree is now in place. We let the kids hang the shatter proof ornaments wherever they wanted. And we tried to be patient when Allie continued to dance around the box of glass ornaments (after warnings to stay away) and fell into them a number of times.

If you didn't know any better, it looks like a lovely occasion from the happy pictures I took. Maybe that's what the kids will remember, instead of our frustrations. I don't remember my parents arguing as we decorated the Christmas tree. I do remember feeling stressed as the huge trees (that we cut from our front yard) made the chandelier swing wildly as Dad tried to put them in place. I also remember wondering why our tree had to "match" instead of look like an Elementary School arts and crafts tree like my friend's tree...

Anyway, our "matching" tree is up. The stress of it is forgotten (but this year I am writing about it so I'll really never forget), and we have a great looking tree for the rest of the month. After every year, Mike and I swear that we are buying a tree that has built in lights. Then the memories fade and we go to Star Valley and get sucked into the fun of finding a Christmas Tree...things will never change.