Oh Tannen-BOOM

It was the day before Christmas and we still didn't have a tree up.

After considerable begging (and a superficial look in the malls for an artificial tree) we decided to chop down a tree in our backyard.

It was in the way of the new shed anyway.

Well, if this tree wasn't the ultimate Canadian cactus, disguised as an evergreen. Took full body armour to get it into the house, and oven mitts to get the decorations on.

Needless to say, last years lights didn't work, there weren't enough of them and it was now Christmas Eve.

Tempus fugit, Christmas has come and gone, and my boys are gone to Quebec. So I'm about to go out with the good-friend boys for a brew before my guys come back, when the phone rings, the sewing machine jams upon the hemming of my new jeans and I hear a swoosh and tinkle.

Of course, it's all my husband's fault because he said it was as solid as a rock and wouldn't fall. Doesn't matter that he's been gone for two days. It's still his fault.

When I went to put it back up and estimate the damage, the cactus-tree-from-hell drew blood....and the lovely glass decorations that my darling students brought were, well....

High time for an artifical with pre-lit twinkling lights, fake tree spray - it's just a symbol anyway, and there's no sense at all in having the symbol itself be the deadly one.