A New Christmas Tradition?

I have got to get back to this blog...

Meanwhile, today marks exactly 5 years since I wrote the most popular post of the 120 I've written.. (Gee, that number sounds good until you notice that this year I've written... uh... two... and that's IF you count this one... )

Anyway, I've been working on posts in my head. Maybe this recycled post will be just the kickstart I need to start writing again. Or maybe I'll slip even further into the clutches of literary laziness and will just come repost this one year after year...

Hope you enjoy just the same, and if I don't make it back here before then, I wish a safe and happy holiday to you and yours.

(This post first ran December 5, 2009.)

HUMBUG!

12/04/11 Editors note: If your Christmas tree is giving you problems and you Googled the name and got sent here, the only help I can offer you is to try THIS; although you can read the following year's entry and learn that it helped some, but not all of the problems.

P.D. asked me yesterday why artificial Christmas trees were invented.

"Well honey, I guess so people won't have to go to the trouble of going to buy a tree every year, they'll already have one at home. It's just easier."

Today, I had to rethink my answer.

For our first Christmas in this house, (2005) my mom bought a pre-lit tree for us. (Actually, for P.D.... she said that her baby deserved something better than the "table-top fiber optic gizmo" that Deat and I called "Our Christmas Tree".)

Oh, that tree that Momma bought, it's a beaut... a 7 1/2 ft Emerald Peak Tree (From K-mart's Martha Stewart line no less). It "features 800 multicolored lights and 1,504 easy-to-shape branch tips Revolving stand included" Yes, that's right folks, my tree TURNS. And man, that first 2 years, well, she was glorious. (Although, I will admit, having an angel staring down while turning in a circle as if she were surveying the room took some getting used to.)

Last December was terribly hectic, not to mention a hard one to "get into the spirit" so putting up the tree was a hurried affair one afternoon after school. I pulled apart the bunched-up branches like fighting fire. As a result, we had a somewhat "gappy" tree. Later in the season, one small line of lights near the bottom stopped lighting... no matter... in a few seconds the good side of the tree came around again anyway. Besides this thing has at least 16 different plugs (with a configuration so confusing, it came with all of the sockets pre-plugged except for the 3 letter-matched plugs and sockets required to connect the 3 different layers of tree.)

Today I decided I'd take a little extra care; I'd take advantage of those "easy-to-shape tips" to make sure our tree would look like the one on the box again. I thought to myself this morning, "I'll try to find that line if I have time and fix it, too."

So, I set the first section in the stand... two rows of branches that fall into place when you set them upright. I noticed as I was shaping the bottom row that the upper-row branches I kept pushing up out my way refused to say there, so I called to P.D. to bring one of my belts from my closet. I pushed all of the upper row branches up out of my way and cinched them with the belt.. worked like a charm! So there I sat on the floor shaping each tip, branch by branch; turn the tree, shape the next one... so pleased with my work... repeat for the next row.

Luckily, P.D. had retrieved not one belt, as I requested, but all of them, so I already had them for the middle section (five rows). I took the top-most of the middle sections branches, cinched them, then the second top-most, cinched them and so on down, so when I finished shaping the bottom-most section I was working on, all I had to do was release the belt above it, and only the very-next row would drop for shaping.

I really wish that had been as easy as it reads here. Those easy-to-shape tips (and the greenery adorning them) hurt! Anyone who has ever made the mistake of working in hay in short sleeves can relate to the scratches covering my lower arms. If you can't relate... be glad. One hour in, and I'm only beginning to shape the bottom-most row of branches for the middle section. It took me another hour to get those rows shaped.

Luckily, TLC called and kept me company for half of that ordeal and the shaping of the top section. As I mentioned to her on the phone, with 2 hours, I could have run out and bought a real tree, and the price would have been a cheap exchange for scratch-free arms! We discussed several topics as I worked, one being that she, (unlike me) had blogged 3 times in November and had also blogged yesterday. As I finished the top section, I told TLC I had to go... it was time to start the decorating.

I plugged in my 3 trusty letter-matched plugs and called to the girls for the first lighting....

Only one of that multitude of light-strings lit.... ONE half of ONE side of ONE row on the bottom of the tree. Just then, I noticed a tag on the plug leading into the base, "One spare fuse inside the socket." Hooray! It's probably just that fuse, right? I opened it up, checked the fuse inside, but it looked fine. I re-plugged the main wire into the wall socket... and now none of the lights will light.

Next year, I believe I'll be forgoing the convenience of my artifical tree for a troublesome real one!

Oh well, while my Christmas Spirit may be a bit lacking at the moment, my competitive spirit is alive and well... At least now I'm one up on TLC for blogging in December.

Retread Reminder

Or, how Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt Fell Off the Rocker to remind you to appreciate the people you love...

Long time, no see, ya'll.

Today's post is something of a re-tread, I've told part of this story on the blog before. I'm retelling it because: 

1. It's my one of my very favorite Deat stories.
2. It's timely.
3. I think this is a really important reminder, and
4. The story is almost entirely written already, so it's should be a quick and easy cut/paste... you know me, I'm all about the easy. Maybe this will renew my writing a bit. Day one of the new year and already a post in!

It all started with this blog post by an old friend from college about the Brad Pitt/Angelina Jolie letter. I had read the "letter."  I suspected,  but didn't know it was a hoax, until this morning.

I'll give you a minute to read Falls' post. I"ll wait... Yes, I know he's a good writer, you can check out more of his stuff later.  (Cue waiting music)

So anyway, After reading HIS post, I sent him the following note, which is now doubling as today's blog post:

Re: today's Pitt-Jolie post.

I lived something similar. It began a few years before it became real. I didn't know he was sick. He didn't know he was sick (denial). All I knew was, he didn't seem to be holding up his end on the chores, I had grown resentful, and our marriage had grown listless. He didn't seem to appreciate me, and I certainly didn't appreciate him.

So, I went back the vows. The vows said "cherish". They didn't say, "unless you don't feel like it today." I tried a simple experiment. When he walked in the door after work, I acted like it was the greatest thing that happened to me all day, whether I "meant" it or not. Same thing if I came in after he did. I smiled; I fawned over him; I asked about his day and unrelentingly took his side... 

He responded. At first with a little confusion, but then as anyone would. Imagine knowing you are going home to someone who is not only glad, but THRILLED to see you and cares about everything that happened to you during the day... He walked in smiling and ready to give back what he was getting. Before 3 weeks had passed, I wasn't "acting" anymore. The minute he walked in WAS the best part of my day.

Fast forward to 2008. We were standing in the large mirror in the bathroom getting ready for yet another doctor appointment and his breathing was becoming ragged. I said "Honey, sit down, that's why the chair is in here."

He sat, frustrated after 7 months of dialysis and repeated hospital stays/visits, and tests of all kinds to see if he was fit for transplant. 

Disgusted, he said, "I want you to look at what I've been reduced to."

For some reason, anger flew all over me. I had been working so hard at being cheerful and finding the blessings along this journey. I was rushing to come up with a positive, and comically enough, I spat the first one I could think of at him: 

"(Insert full name, the one you only use when you're REALLY mad, here)! You better jump back and count your blessings! For one thing, you have a wife who absolutely worships the ground your walk on!"

He looked up in the mirror and grinned, "I do, don't I?"

He died before the month was out. 

I can't tell you how much I cherish that moment. I am so blessed to have not one regret, nothing left unsaid. I know, he knew.

So, the Pitt-Jolie story? 

Yeah. Let that sucker go viral as it can, if only one more wife and/or one more husband may learn the value of how the cherish vow REALLY works.