A left over Christmas story

This year we decided to cut down a tree from the back yard for our Christmas tree. There is a beautiful tree that is cutting off our view down to the woods in the back. The tree started out pretty small when we moved in, but apparently, living things tend to grow. It was really nice to just send Curtis out to the back yard to cut the tree down. After having to take part of the door off the glass doors in back, we pulled really, really hard and finally got the tree in--- well, almost. Curtis got the tree all the way to fireplace on the other end of the living room when I noticed some of the tree was still outside. Okay, so the tree is a little big. We've had big trees before so I'm not worried about having enough ornaments. It was all we could do to get the tree in the stand and upright in the air. Curtis got it screwed in while I was somewhere inside the tree holding it straight. (Much easier to do it while not 8 months pregnant this time ) We were finally able to take a step back, actually several steps back in order to get out of the tree, and finally see how tall it really was. Speechless was not a term I envisioned using with my Christmas tree. Tall is an understatement. Do you know how tall my ceilings are? There over 19 feet tall.....and so is our tree!!!!!!!!!!!! An inch and a half is all we have to spare. After having several heart attacks and wondering what in the world we were thinking, we finally got the tree moved into place. Oh my word.......what?.....how?....why?.......augh. So Curtis and CJ go outside to do some end of the year yard clean up and the girls where napping while I got out the lights. I had bought about 5 new strands of lights because I was having problems with a few of them last year. Okay, so I'll be using all of the lights this year. The tree is beautifully positioned in front of the glass doors, and at least half of the rest of the room. I was standing at the fireplace on the other end trying get all of those new lights out and ready when I heard a strange noise..... okay, well a lot of things are already plugged in and one of them is catching on something..... there it is again.....what?...... So I turned around just in time to see a 19 foot Christmas tree coming straight at me!!!!!!!!!!! That's right, the tree fell on me! What does one do to catch a tree more than three times your size?...nothing. You watch in horror and think of all the great years you got to have. And then you realize that the only good thing about a 19 foot tree falling on you is that it's so big around the bottom that the top doesn't fall all the way to the floor, especially when a fireplace is in the way. My biggest fear (literally) has come true, and it wasn't as bad as I thought. Curtis went out and got 8 huge bolts to put in our unusually large base and screwed them deep into the tree to hold it up. Being incredibly certain that it wouldn't happen again, he tethered it to the wall!!!!!!!!!!!!! How many times have I dreamed of a Christmas tree tied to my wall :) Now that my biggest dream has come true, Christmas will be wonderful!!!!!

Just to put things into perspective. Our Christmas card is all of us on top of one of those super tall "little giant" ladders in front of the tree. You will have no idea from the picture that we are already over 10 feet off of the ground. Merry Christmas!