The Christmas Tree and Other Surprises

Mom yanked the old tattered christmas tree, fake, down from the storage in an old yamaha electric piano box. It was falling apart- both the box and the christmas tree, that is. I looked at it and laughed. Once it was slithered out from it's cocoon, it was a mess. I could already tell it was to be a horrible sight- some of the branches were broken off, some were clinging desperately to the sides of the tree, and others were so scrawny that the wire underneath was showing through, a dull silver. So I began to put on my shoes. We were going STRAIGHT to wal mart, getting another, or, EVEN BETTER, going to the fancy Christmas tree place where they cut one down for you. Classy. Mom, to my horror and much dislike said "No" with an exclamation mark. "we were not going to spend $250 on some cheap-o plastic junk when we have a perfectly good tree standing right in front of us! There," she said as she positioned the branches a little, "it'll be fine". At that moment the branch fell off and the tree looked ten times worse and I threw a little fit about how this would probably ruin the christmas spirit and I am SO not having friends over if this ugly evergreen was to be in our living room, right there. Mom said stop it.
So this year it was making do. Making do with the ugly tree which would better serve as a Halloween prop, and making the burnt crumbiling cookies I made taste like heaven, and making the lights I strung around my room like a halo, pretty. It was to be hard.
The other day I decided to start making the tree a nice tree. Alright. I strung the lights through all the branches, plugged the cord in, and waited for the tree to light up. It didn't. One stupid bulb was broken and it ruined it for everybody. But, I was not a giver-uper! I got NEW lights, and strung them again through the scratchy branches and went to plug it in and- I wrapped it the wrong way. It was the wrong side of the plug. It was NOT the side with the thingies sticking out- it was the side with the two holes. Therefore, I couldn't even plug it in. I gave up.
Mom and Dad did the lights this year.
But I did ornaments. We have a lot of home-made school-made ones. Glitter, popsicle stick snowmen, painted this, etc. I hung each one, then stood back after it was over. It wasn't bad. I liked it, I like it now. It wasn't Martha's Stunning Seasonal Tree! Nor was it the tree I saw in Country Living. But it was our tree. And I like our tree a lot more than theirs.