Trials and tribulations of pre-lit Christmas trees and garland...

Probably my favorite (non holiday) day of the year is the day I get to start my Christmas decorating. I love putting on my Christmas music and lighting my "Mistletoe" candle for the first time of the season. Pulling out all the boxes from under our stairs never seems like a chore (well, probably because Andy takes care of that part) and moving furniture around to accommodate our holiday decor is an activity I never mind to do.

I have to admit, going into this decorating season, I was a tad nervous about our living room tree (yes, we have more than one tree!) This is our fourth year using it, and it is a pre-lit tree, something that has been fantastic the past three years. Plugging in the tree as we were setting it up, we realized that my worries came true, and about three sections of the lights were out. Andy did everything he could to fix the situation (from changing out bulbs and fuses, to shaking the heck out of the tree in hopes it would spark something) but alas, the lights refused to twinkle for us. So I had to resort to putting a few strands of lights over top, which actually doesn't look too bad and most of it is now in the back, so you can't really tell. Crisis one, diverted.

After our first tree debacle, we decided to change environments and so we headed out to Home Depot to pick up a few things and to also pick out our tree for the basement. Andy always had real trees, and while I'm a big fan of the "faux" trees, I must admit having the real thing in one room of the house is kind of nice. It is also fun tying the tree to the roof of the car! The other thing Andy likes about the real tree in the basement is it is the one place in the house where I'll allow colored lights (yes, I am my mother's daughter!)

By Saturday morning we had a lot of our decor up, and we'd even had our first meal on our Christmas Tree Spode china (Andy loves it, he just won't admit it.) However, as good as we were feeling about everything, we soon found ourselves confronted with crisis number two. A new section of our tree was out (and yes, I had already completed the decorations on it, ugh.) So Andy removed the ornaments in that particular section so I could add new lights, and heck if I wasn't finished adding the strand that the lights popped back on, which now made that section super bright. So, I removed the strand, replaced the ornaments, and crossed my fingers it would last all season. Crisis two, diverted.

Sunday brought rainy cold weather which kept us from completing our outdoor lights, but it did force us to finish up on the inside, including vacuuming and moving all our boxes back under the stairs. From the inside, our house looked ready for the festive weeks to come.

That is until I got home from work last night and that same section on the tree from Saturday was out again, and hasn't come back on. Crisis number three, still unsolved. However, I had to quickly move on to crisis number four which was a strand of garland in our kitchen that decided to go out, Andy was able to fix this one. Crisis four, diverted.

All in all, even with a section of our tree out, I can't complain. I love my house all year, but especially during the holidays. I'll just have to admire my tree from the side that isn't out...