The Christmas season is my favorite time of the year. I'm sure I'm not the only one with that sentiment. I love to decorate the house with all my festive decorations. We always have some sort of holiday gathering at our home, so inevitably there has been some stress in decorating the house - in years past, that is.
For some reason, since we moved to Charlotte, we have had some issues with our Christmas tree. I am a traditionalist, so I have to get a live tree each year; I just love the smell and the experience of going to get the tree itself. The first year that things started going downhill, it had been raining and our tree was soaking wet. We were having the church party at our home (that when the church was much smaller) so Derek had to get the tree out of the rain so it would have time to dry before decorating. Just so you can get a good picture in your head, I LOVE large trees, so ours is about 10-11 feet. Derek and Pastor John (he was a willing helper) pulled the tree into the house using a wagon. They were barely able to fit it through the front door, so there was lots of tugging and little sprigs were flying everywhere.
Meanwhile, I am counseling someone in our living room - this was also the time before we had a church office. The woman was pouring out her heart, and I was doing my best to be totally present because I knew that Derek was getting frustrated. They finally got the tree through the door and shoved it into a corner, where Derek was wedged with the tree between his legs showering him with rain soaked pine. They got the tree situated, Derek came into the living room, pulled a sweat shirt over his wet t-shirt and announced that he was going to the mall!
The next year we were a little aggravated while decorating the tree; I don't even remember why. We finished with a great sigh of relief, sat on the couch to watch a little football. We then hear a huge thud, and I knew what I had heard, I just didn't want to admit it to myself. So, I just sat on the couch; I didn't even want to look at the mess. When I finally summoned up the courage to go survey the damage, I was a little upset. There were broken ornaments strewn all over the room. And I will have to admit, I cried a little.
The NEXT year, I decided I didn't want to deal with any stress, so I was going to hang the lights myself. Derek doesn't enjoy it, and I always have a certain time frame that I want it done, so I thought I would just take care of it. I had never strung lights on a tree - there can't be much to it, right? Well, I proceed to string 9 sets of lights together. I just keep plugging one strand into another, on and on and on. I DIDN'T KNOW!! Well, it worked for a day. Then it came time for our staff party. We had about 20 minutes before everyone was to arrive and the lights went out. They were ALL blown. The tree was already all decorated, so to pull off the lights would have taken forever, so we never had lights that year. It was sad.
I could tell you stories from every year, these are just the highlights. So far, so good this year. I strung the lights, only connected 3 strands together. I did my research this year! The tree is a bit crooked, but I'm acting like it doesn't bother me. I will keep you posted, hopefully there will be nothing to share!
For those of you that go to our church, you know that Derek says things at times that embarrass me. I always felt sorry for pastor's wives because of how they would expose their families to everyone in the church - and now I am one!! Most of the time, it doesn't bother me, I am able to laugh a lot of things off. However, this past Sunday was a little different. So, here's the scoop.
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