R.I.P.X.T.

During Christmas time we started asking Celia what she was gonna ask Santa for.

"What do you want Santa to bring you for Christmas??"
- " A BIIIIIIGGG Christmas Treeeee!"

During that time, she got to visit Santa at the mall a few times with both sets of grandparents, and each time the Santas asked her what she wanted she'd say:

" A BIIIIGGG Christmas TREEEE!"

She said they asked her what else she wanted, and she would reply "nothing". "Just a tree".

Ok. We thought that'd be easy. For the most part, it was. It was probably 2 days before Christmas and we were starting to feel real guilty that we hadn't gotten our kid the only thing she really wanted yet. We ended up getting a much too expensive tree in the rain - but was worth it. On the way home she was sooo happy. Effie was sooo excited too, and when we put it up in the living room they stayed there all night, hugging and smelling the tree.

I looked at that tree today, and funny thing is - it actually still smelled. (no.. it didn't smell foochy - it smelled like a Christmas Tree).

Oh yeah - you must be wondering "WHAT THE FUNK WERE YOU STILL DOING WITH A CHRISTMAS TREE IN YOUR HOUSE IN AUGUST?"

Well, Celia's love for her tree made quite an impression on Alex.
These were the reasons (I think) that he put the ornaments back on after I had already removed them, and demanded the tree should stay.

1. Celia loved it so much and we couldn't take it away from her.
2. He wanted to watch the tree transform (not die) but "change".
3. He thought it looked cool.
4. He wanted to pester me.

Whatever the reason - he put the ornaments on the top so the kids would stop trashing them and breaking them all over the house, and then, Celia and Effie helped him redecorate it with 200 feet of cassette "tape" from a destroyed cassette. (which made it difficult for me to remove the lights. Anyhoo... it was there... for a long time.

If you came to Effie's baptismal bash, you might have seen the yellow tree in the living room, tilted, yet still fresh with a pine smell... and if you asked me what it was doing there, I probably ignored you.

When it was time that day for Effie to open her gifts, we were around the tree and Alex's Uncle Serge said :

"Hey Sara! Call Alex so he can see all these presents under the tree - then... maybe he will finally believe that Santa CAME!"

hahahaha. I thought it was funny. A few weeks ago, my neighbor was looking for me and peeping through the window. When I saw her later in the day she said "What the HELL is a Christmas tree still doing in your house". I didn't answer much. Just that - my husband liked it.

But tonight... I was cleaning up, (as usual when the little children fall into the land of slumber) and I looked at the little, wilted, yellow tree, then walked into Alex's dungeon and asked him, "Can I put the tree out now?? There are spiders under it.". He said "Sure". (I think he has Arachnophobia)

Within 9 minutes the tree was de-ornamented and put outside, and during those 9 minutes, I got a little sad.

It did still smell good.
Some people didn't even notice it was there.
Celia still liked telling people how lucky she was that she got to "keep" her tree.

To end this long story - it's gone. (Dad - if you are reading - which I'm sure you are - please tell mom. Maybe I can score some brownie points)

It's sitting next to our driveway (if anyone wants to come take a picture) and it'll be gone when the trashman comes on Tuesday. (I bet he'll be a bit baffled)

Honestly, I will miss it a little, but I'm actually really glad I ended up getting rid of it, cuz a 3 month overdue VHS tape from the Glendale library that I had been looking for was hidden underneath it.