(N)O Christmas Tree

Guess what we did on Saturday after we opened our presents?

We took down our Christmas tree. I'm sure that seems strange - especially if you were putting up your tree on the very same day.

But here's the deal - the tree had served it's purpose at our house. We had celebrated Cramp Christmas the weekend before, our own Christmas that morning, and I was packing up and getting ready to head to my parents for the week. It just seemed logical to take it down. And I'm glad we did - it means one less thing to do on the one day we have between getting home from my parents and welcoming our company who is coming for New Years.

Plus, the tree was dead. Like, really really dead. Like, more dead than I have ever seen. Over the past week, anytime anything touched the tree, and even at random times, we would hear a sprinkling of pine needles hitting the floor. Everyone in my family is getting extra lucky this year, with a side of pine needles included in their gift.

I remember always cleaning up the trail of pine needles that were left in the wake of my dad lugging our tree out to the curb. But this was something entirely different. There wasn't much of a trail of needles marking the tree's path out to the patio ... because there were no needles left on the tree. The entire tree's worth of needles were laying on the floor around the Christmas tree base.

I have never seen anything like this. Apparently if a tree becomes completely dry, the base of the tree seals itself back up. I'm going to guess this is what happened. While the dude was away hunting and I went to my mom's do Christmas baking, I think the tree sucked up all the water. Because after that, I never had to water it again. The base was always full. Clearly, the tree was not getting any water. Please do not let this happen to your tree. It is sad. It is messy. And, after two weeks, the water starts to smell like poop. Sorry, but it's true.

Here are some pictures to demonstrate just how sad our tree was by the last day. (Sorry the pictures are in a crazy order. As I said yesterday, I can't seem to rearrange the order of the photos on either my mom or dad's laptops). They go in backwards - documenting first what the floor looked like after we took the tree out and then ending with a photo of what the branches looked like with the decorations still on. I've also added another picture of what our tree looked like when we first put it up at the beginning of the post (because I cannot move it to the end) for you to see the difference. If you feel so inclined, look at the photos in backwards order.

The evidence that a Christmas tree once existed here.
Logi and Evan stopped by for a bit so she helped me take down the decorations.
You know you're happy that you get to see me wearing my traditional Christmas garb. The Christmas pants and reindeer sweater are a steadfast tradition!
The sad, droopy branches.
This is what the tree looked like before we started taking down the decorations.
Sad isn't it?