15 + 2
I’m not especially good at math, but I’m pretty sure that’s 17.
Yesterday, I was talking about how I had gone with my mom’s garden club to the park to decorate 17 trees that turned out to be 14 trees, really.
Oh, wait!
That means the equation is 14 + 2 which is not 17 trees at all, but rather 16! (I told you I was no good at math.)
The two is for the two trees I’ve decorated at my own house today. Although, if you wanted to stretch a point, you could say that one of them was so complicated that it counts as two—which would make my decorating score for today three which would make my total score 17—thus lending an air of authenticity to the headline of this post.
One of them was simple.
My bubble light tree.
Decoration involves taking it out of the box, fluffing its branches, screwing in the bubble lights, and plugging it into an outlet. Voilà!
I love my bubble light tree—and not only because it is easy to get it up and running. Mostly, I just think the bubble lights are way cool!
The second tree was our official tree.
We have the most gorgeous artificial tree. Purists among you will shudder, but it truly is the most realistic looking fake tree I have ever seen. If I could get it to smell like a fir tree, no one would ever know the difference.
Of course. . .some assembly required.
All the branches have to be attached and arranged in their proper order. A little forethought during dis-assembly and packing for storage, however, and this is not much of an ordeal. The needles are a bit scratchy when you have to reach inside the branches, but this can be mitigated by wearing long sleeves.
It’s not so much the assembly that complicated matters as it was the MotH’s* new project around the model train.
We’ve had this model train for ages. In our NY apartment, it didn’t have a lot of scope. For the first few years we were here in Florida, it seemed all we could do to get the dock decorated. The train was short-changed again. This year, however, the MotH decided it was time for the train to come into its own.
He built a platform.
A big platform.
Not only for the train, but for the tree, too.
Holy Moly! The tree is now nine feet high.
Putting on branches, stringing lights and garland required two ladders. Placement of ornaments involved much climbing.
It is a miracle nobody fell out of the tree. (It is a miracle that nobody has carted me off to Bellevue by virtue of the mere fact that anybody could fall out of a tree inside my house!)
But, the tree is now up (waaaaaay up!), and it’s all decorated, and the train is lying at its feet.
We’re going to have to make a trip to the hobby shop for some more track—and, I’m thinking. . .maybe. . . .cows?
But that’s a whole other story.
* Man of the House
