christmas elves

Putting up the Christmas tree. The very thought makes me shudder. I've had nightmare encounters with non-compliant Christmas trees. One such nightmare went like this:

I checked all the strings of lights, and they all worked perfectly, so I wrapped them around the tree. After putting all the ornaments on, I plugged in the tree, only to find an entire section of the tree unlit. I checked for connections. Everything was fine. If you remove a string of lights, you pretty much have to remove all the surrounding ornaments first, or else you're likely to knock them off and break them, so I removed the ornaments. Then, I removed the offending string of lights and replaced it with another string, which I tested first, of course. I plugged the lights in again, and what do you think? An entirely different string of lights was unlit. At this point, it was just too much, and I collapsed on the floor in a fit of tears. People magically disappeared to rooms unknown in the house and didn't resurface until I had managed to fix the tree and regain my dignity. Now, it would be one thing if said nightmare only happened once, but this nightmare has repeated itself in varying forms more than once or twice. Therefore---Christmas tree---shudder.

Well, this year, with school, a brand new granddaughter to love, and practicing for the Messiah concert, Christmas tree = shudder = forget it. Well, at least, if it doesn't equal forget it, it at least equals put it off. Yesterday when I was busy in the kitchen making Sunday dinner, my daughter returned from church, and said, "How do you like the Christmas tree?" Imagine a shudder here; I assure you there was one. My response was: "Christmas tree! What Christmas tree? I haven't had time to to put up {shudder} a Christmas tree." She opened the sliding door into the living room, and there to my wondering eyes did appear a sleigh full of toys . . . wait, wait . . . a Christmas tree! A fully decorated, absolutely beautiful, more beautiful than I've ever made it, Christmas tree. Wow!

Thank you Christmas elves. What a beautiful gift!