Over the Frustration and onto the Holiday .....

I'm going to play off Grammices! post, because i should really post SOMETHING this week!


I like Hand-me-downs, mainly because I am cheap and why buy it if i can have it for free? So for the last 3 years i've used Grammices! old Christmas tree. We use artificial because the real ones kick up her allergies and frankly, I just know no different. Besides, I'm the one that does all the decorating and lights etc. because the hubs just doesnt so if i had to wait on him to purchase and pick up a "real" tree, we'd end up stacking gifts under the coffee table christmas morning.

Nonetheless, I've always used my "old" tree, my hand me down from mom a couple of years back and i've been happy. I like the tree. Granted, it was gettin' a bit saggy here and there but i liked it. I COULD PUT IT TOGETHER! And i had a routine, which we know is very important to me.

And then Grammice! bought a new one for me at a garage sale. A pre-lit one.

I still wasnt sure i was actually going to use it until my SIL (the one i like) asked if i knew of anyone who had an extra tree because her's was too old to use again this year. So I gave her my "old" one and used the pre-lit one my mom got us.

The one that is beautiful now all decorated, but the one that came with no directions and all those female/male plug ends. I kept calling Grammice! to have her
help me figure it out and she would tell me to "just plug them into one another moving up the tree" but my tree isnt like hers. I had a million female/male plugs. I was very frustrated to say the least and i was not in the mood!

I simply hung up on her, shoved the tree in a corner and told the kids that we had to wait until dad came home to finish it. Then I called hubs, yelled at him that his errand was taking too long, cussed my mother for the new tree that we didnt NEED and hung up on him. (I was making brownie points all around wasnt I?)

11-my electronically inclined child said to me "gimme a minute and just let me see what i can do" and within 3 minutes, all was lit up. Where she gets her knowledge of electronics and patience is beyond me. I ride around all year with my car clock an hour forward or an hour behind because damned if i know how to program that either. 11 will usually get sick of seeing it and change it for me.......

She also managed the lights we hung outside yesterday. Again, i was on the phone with grammice! asking her how the hell they would work one moment and just shut off the next (in my o-so-lovely patient tone......) when 11 said, "Hold on, lemme see if i can..... take this....... OH.........hold on, i think i might....... THERE IT IS.....All Fixed" and I had lights that worked outside of the house!

So i'm through using those special words i use when assembling the christmas tree and the lights. All is complete. Thank you to my 11 year old who one day might just attend M-I-T and my mother, Grammice! because this year, gifts were damned close to being stacked under that coffee table and the only light guiding santa to our home was gonna be the bulb on the porch.