Ever Heard the Twelve Pains of Christmas?

Last night, We felt the Christmas lights pain, like labor pain! Just like the song above entails...

But this is good- it is good for my girls to know that life isn't easy right? That not all things are as easy as plugging in the wall socket and lighting up your day! Right? of course I'm right! If you are one of those who cannot deal with pain, and frustration- leave now.

A few years back we finally broke down and purchased an artificial tree. I hated it. I love the smell of a fresh cut tree. However, that is the problem, unless you actually cut the tree yourself, it isn't freshly cut.
Last night, the girls were both home, a rarity these days. So we put on some soup and sandwiches and decided to get the house ready for Christmas! This started out pretty well, although I was beginning to feel tired and a little under the weather- I think my girls cold germs got to me.

So we began: Rachel trimming the the bough

Hmm- Not sure about that bow- But I didn't have the heart to tell her. (Will have to come up with another option and change her mind!)

Then she set up the nativity:

Then the trouble started... And my point of this.

We pulled out the tree and I knew, from last year, that one of the three sections had a burnt out bulb, so we had to adorn it with a secondary set. But, last night as we plugged it in, nothing. Not one Blinking light! Or not blinking light for that matter! So, I sent my older daughter to the store for one of those light testers. Then I began to look for the insidious light.. I am generally, by nature, a patient person. But after the instructions informed me that, due to the reading I was getting on the little green and red lights, there was 'more than one light on the string' burned out, and that the only remedy would be to test each individual light-by-light pulling each one out and touching onto the leads of the tester.
Well, here - See for yourself!

Can you see the thousands of light bulbs we are talking about here? I am sure that when we purchased the tree, that was a huge selling point for us! Now? When one or more bulbs are not working? Notsomuch!

My older daughter and I spent the rest of the evening (whilst my youngest completed math assignments) slowly and tediously separating the light strings, which I am - one-hundred percent sure of now- were not meant to EVER be separated, from the tree branches.

O.K.- so I am sure that my posting here, just doesn't do justice to the agony we endured... However, I just know that some of you have at one time, or maybe many times, felt the same Christmas pain I describe.- We won't even discuss our outdoor house lights. If there wasn't a pain, there wouldn't be a song!

This is a gorgeous albeit small tree, and although trees are getting quite cheap now, in many ways more than price, I just couldn't bring myself to throw it out. So, now, In my living room stands a very naked, and very pretty grinchified tree. I say grinchified because as we had held each of the three sections on our laps yanking and pulling the branches in every conceivable direction,- lets just say they lost their tree-like silhouette. We were so tired and so 'sick of the tree' by the time the last bulb was pulled from the bough, that we just quickly assembled it and went to bed. Let's just say it resembles this:

-At the present time.

But Saturday morning we should be able to 'spruce' it up so to speak, while sipping our morning coffee and tea.

This guy!? No help at all. Infact- If the task could get any more troublesome- he was hell-bent on making sure of that. Like any great dog, under your feet, sniffing all the totally cool, colorful new 'toys' in the room!

We had tried out a new recipe for Snicker bar Crescent rolls, they sounded pretty good, however, we were not impressed... I think maybe I didn't use enough butter- alright, so I omitted the butter.... my bad. Anyhow, they sat on the cookie sheet in the kitchen, untouched... BlackJack- (The pooch Seen above) sat with his nose against the oven for approximately 2 hours, subtlely whining... wondering why we would let such a delicacy sit uneaten for so long. At one point his nose was a mere inch from a roll my daughter had on a plate next to her. He didn't eat it, he didn't try to get it, he just sat, still, staring at it while dreams of sugar plums....danced in his head. We will surly be turned in to PETA soon, cruel he says. So keep your fingers crossed that we actually get the tree looking festive before the festivities begin.. and that will be a week early for us this year!