I Hate When I'm Right

The day after Thanksgiving, we put up the tree. Since Peter is two this year, we put up the big one (when there is a toddler in the house that does not really understand "no", we use the little tree, put up high, which in our house, seems to be every other year). We've had this tree awhile, though I can't remember if we got it when we lived in the apartment over 10 years ago, or at the first house.


Anyway, while I was putting the tree together, I had a feeling that it was going to be the last time I put it up. The first night, we didn't put up any ornaments, just the lights, since it was getting late and I wanted the kids in bed on time. The next day, while I ran errands, Evelyn couldn't wait for me to get home and went ahead and started putting up ornaments. When I got home with her brother and sisters, they got all excited and raced to put up the rest of the ornaments. I was a little uneasy about it, but they checked each ornament with me as to where to put it: top, middle, or bottom, or in other words: breakable, durable, no worries.

The tree looked great when they were done. They were so proud of themselves, and we really enjoyed seeing ornaments we hadn't seen in 2 years (little tree has its' own ornaments).

We all went to bed and when I woke up in the morning, Andrew informed me that the tree got knocked over, ornaments broke and the tree broke. Oh no. I hate when my gut feeling proves right. I inspected the damage, and sure enough, the tree cannot be fixed. After some thinking, I got two cinder blocks, a galvanized tub and rigged the tree to stand.

It works! I had to take everything off the tree; the ornaments, the lights, everything. Then all the branches. Then slipped the cinder block over the "stem" and another cinder block to keep it steady. The tub actually makes it look nice, rustic-looking. After putting the branches back on, re-stringing the lights, and only putting up ornaments that won't break if it falls again, it looks pretty good. Looks like I'll be checking the clearance sales after Christmas for a new tree.

Any ideas what to do with this old one? I have an idea to take some of the branches and see if I can twist them into a wreath, but I won't need many branches for that. I'd like to try and recycle as much of it as I can, so it doesn't end up wasting away in the landfills.