Oh Christmas Tree!

Mac put his foot down. He does that on occasion. Usually, the more he raises a ruckus about his foot coming down, the more I feel the need to ignore him. That is what I should have done... ignored him. You see, I always have gotten a real christmas tree. If you were to listen to the kids and Mac , they would have you believe that I get the largest tree on the tree farm. Now that we live in a much smaller house, they were concerned about what they viewed as my excesses. Especially since we have an open ceiling over the living area.

"No more getting a tree that touches the ceiling, Mom. It'll fill half the house! There won't be room for anything else! No room for presents! No room for Dad!"

So, I decided to go ahead and acknowledge Mac's foot, seeing how they were all ganging up on me. We got an artificial tree. It was a post christmas clearance a couple of years ago. It was nine foot tall and of a much smaller circumference then a real tree would have been. I suppose it's okay. It didn't smell good. I didn't hear the sound of pine cones popping as they responded to the warmth of the house. I suppose I would have to say that it seemed awkward to me.

Once the christmas lights were wrapped onto the branches, the tree would couldn't fit back into it's box. It seems larger in pieces then it did put together. It lays in chunks under the dining room hutch, exposed, ugly and sad. It was supposed to get stored in the garage... the one that hasn't gotten built. We can't even find a container that it will fit into! It is depressing.

Yesterday a mouse got into the house. I don't know how... the little bastard! We went to town and got a package of traps. I laid out a piece of newspaper over the wood floor and Mac placed the trap on that. This morning when I got up, I figured I'd just have to roll up the newspaper and take it to the burn barrel and cremate the remains. I got up. No mouse. No trap! Apparently, it drug itself off and took shelter in the great unwieldy chunks of the artificial christmas tree. It looks as if my chore for today will be clearing out the tree and looking for a little mouse corpse.

HO-HO-HO! Yup, that's my forced laugh.

Louie