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Christmas Trees
We are doing a tree this year for the Methuen Festival of Trees.  We purchased it at Wal-Mart; they were the only ones who had trees that early. Anyway, while we (Kelly and I) were setting up the tree, it kept leaning slightly, so we made adjustments to the plastic tree stand base.  After we wrapped the lights, three strands, around the center pole we started to put the branches on. The tree decided to start shedding, not just the needles, but entire stems were breaking off as we placed them into the branch holder rings. We laughed but kept going undaunted by this forewarning. Once all the broken branches were on the tree, we thought fluffing the branches would be a good idea before placing the outer layer of lights. Our fluffing became a pruning event as almost every branch snapped the moment we tried to bend it into position. My husband suggested returning the tree like a normal person would do, but I was in a battle now; the tree or me, and I was going to win! I ran downstairs and brought up some wire and cutters; I was going to wire those, $#%%*&%, branches back on!!  Kelly suggested getting on all the lights before trying to put the branches back together. As we started winding the lights around the bottom branches, which at this point looked like they had a bad case of mange, the tree started that leaning thing again.  I was on the second level of branches when it happened, Kelly yelled, I stood up, and the tree went crashing to the floor. Now I felt totally defeated. Was it the plastic stand that had broken? Maybe we could fix that too.  No, it was the metal bar, the one that runs up the center of the tree. The cheap piece of  @$^&% crap had BENT!! You would think at this point I would return the tree and give anyone listening a piece of my mind. Well by now you know I could not let that happen. Oh, no, this tree was going to be in the festival if I had to hold it up for three weeks myself.  I rethought my design, and now it is a cornucopia. That's right, I left the tree on its side and filled the front with giant fruits and vegetables. The metal was so easy to bend, so it was no problem to bend up the top of it. Oh yes, if you go to the festival of trees this year you will see my tree on its side it in all its glory. Life lesson  #184 Wal-Mart sucks.