Is That Thing Real?

Nope!

You see, despite the wonderful smell of a fresh evergreen in our home…

Despite the joy inherent in picking up pine needles well into every March…

Despite the annual photo ops involving men man with power tools…

The Great Trunk Trimming of 2005

Despite all the fun that comes with buying, hauling, trimming, and cleaning up after a live tree every holiday season, a few years ago, we decided to go faux.  You see, each December, as we headed to the lot to pick out our tree, we experienced a bit of sticker shock, and we finally realized that purchasing a fake tree (which have gotten SO much better looking in recent years) at a post-Christmas sale would pay for itself in one or two years.  That realization was the one that pushed us from the “Real Trees Only!” crowd to the “Ehh, let’s save a tree (and our wallets)” crowd.

Plus, artificial trees are pre-lit.

Pre-lit is great.  It’s slightly less great when you realize you have a strand out, because you can’t just sit down by the outlet and find the problem bulb.  You see, they’re attached.  To the tree.  Which makes it a bit more involved.

Then, when you realize that it’s not just one problem bulb…that you had some kind of surge last year, and it’s pretty nearly every bulb on the tree…well.  Let’s just say, we were happy we had purchased our new “little friend.”

This guy was instrumental in helping us determine which bulbs were no longer functioning (most of them), and determining that it was actually a bulb issue, and not a voltage issue.  Unfortunately, we both had pretty sore fingertips by the end of the day.  Much egg nog (sadly, unspiked) was consumed that afternoon and evening.

And who says there are no good photo ops with artificial trees?

The Great Box Opening of 2009