The tree is decorated

Thursday, Ann and I went to three places before finally settling on the right tree for the right price. It looked great at the tree lot and only cost $40. People say that you could get a nice artificial tree for a bit more than that and that it would last for years and not cause damage to the environment by cutting down trees. My argument has always been, well, when you get rid of that fake tree eventually, how long is it going to take to decompose in the landfill. One thousand years? Ten Thousand? Besides, most real Christmas trees these days are grown on farms for the exact purpose of becoming Christmas trees.
We got the tree home and of course, it doesn't fit in the stand as is, so I had to remove some of the lower branches, in addition to about an inch of the trunk so it would absorb water. The tree seals itself off after cutting so you need to make the cut and then get it into water within a few minutes or it will not take up any water and thus become even more of a fire hazard than it already is as a real tree.
Once the lower branches were removed, one side of the tree didn't look perfect any more. But see, that doesn't really matter. Even Charlie Brown's tree looked beautiful once it was decorated, and we knew we could fill in the gaps and open spaces with dangling ornaments and lights.
I put the lights on Thursday night, and Ann got a lot of it decorated while I was at work on Friday. When I came home, she was beat and I finished decorating it. And really, it looks pretty nice. Now we can relax and enjoy the glow.