1) It started raining just when we were going to pick it up from the lot, so S got wet while loading it in the car and all that.
2) We leave it in the garage because of the said rain until one day later when S lugs it up to our apartment after we get home. It was oh, around 1.30 a.m.
3) Two days later he lugs up the huge bag of dirt. Apparently here they don't do the tree stands with the water container.
4) We pot the tree and make a small mess of dirt on our terrace.
5) When we cut open the plastic wrapping the branches, we notice that our 'perfect' tree is actually two trees. There's a siamese twin growing out one side. Oops.
See what I mean about how it's a nice idea? And the imperfect shape adds to the charm, right? I wouldn't be surprised if we end up with a fake tree next year, but we'll see.
So Saturday evening after dinner, I threw a Christmas cd in the player to get the mood going and the end result was this:
Aww... not bad for our amateur effort, right? The lights are actually red sparkling LEDs. The lights took us only two different visits to Carrefour and at least one combined hour of dazed wandering in the Christmas light aisle. We tested countless sets of lights to see how they would look like and of course by then the ones we wanted were out in 'clear'. We're crazy like that. Actually by then the only lights left were red or blue. So red it was and actually they're not bad.
And I found my nativity set. It sure was a nice feeling... us, our tree, and Jingle Bells in the background. :-)
p.s. Can I add to the above?
5) At one point in the night, I went over to admire the tree and started shrieking. S came over to see what was up. There was a big worm wringling on the floor under the tree. I guess it had decided to get out to check out the new digs. Ugh!
