Grinch

I lost a lot of my Christmas decorations in the basement flood of August of last year. That included the artificial tree. I was pleased that a friend, who has lots of trees, let me have one of them. That gift was after Christmas so I didn't put it up last year.

I started that process this afternoon. I didn't get very far -- trunk and two layers of branches -- before deciding it was much more hassle than it was worth. Three reasons:

* It is too big. It is about six feet tall and five feet wide. That doesn't leave enough space in my living room to get around it without brushing against it.

* It is astonishingly messy. This tree came with "flocking" to simulate freshly fallen snow. Never mind that the stuff appears to be caked on -- way too much. The problem is it appears to be old and is definitely crumbly. I'm glad I decided the box was too heavy to cart up the stairs. I unpacked it in the basement and set the various size branches in piles. Before taking the first two sets of branches up the stairs I knocked off some of the flocking, creating quite a mess. I had a trail of flocking up the stairs and a lot on the floor in the living room. Brushing against it would send more flocking to the floor.

* I don't have much to put on the tree. I hadn't bought as much at last year's after Christmas sales as I thought I had. I have some rescued ornaments from last year and a box or two new ones, but no lights. Alas, I'll probably miss this year's sales because of after-Christmas traveling.

I put it all back in the box and contemplating setting it out on the curb on trash day. Then I got out the vacuum. I had to run that over my clothes. There was too much flocking on the floor in the basement for the vacuum and had to get out the broom. I used the broom on the steps too.

Last year I did find a manger scene staffed by the characters from Peanuts -- Charlie Brown and Lucy as Joseph and Mary, Snoopy as a sheep, etc. That may suffice for this year, though I'm not sure where to put it.

I mentioned all this at bell rehearsal tonight. How to get me a tree turned into quite a discussion topic.