Just one step away from a minivan

We bought an artificial pre-lit Christmas tree today.

In the spirit of our old, "traipsing around two or three different tree lots searching for the perfect tree, strapping it to the top of the Jeep, real tree" selves, the fake tree is sitting in the middle of the garage right now. You know, so the branches have a chance to settle down. Okay, because Troy is sick and I don't have the energy to do all the moving around and decorating yet.

In our defense, did I mention that it is pre-lit? That's right, pre-lit. Now we will have to replace the 14 year old tradition of fighting over the placement of the lights followed weeks later by the equally strong tradition of fighting over who has to take down the lights with something new and exciting for the 2006-2007 season. Also, we are hosting the Baines family Christmas this year, but because people are flying in from Colorado and California, we are celebrating in January. So, the tree will be up for quite some time and with our track record, any real tree that we picked out would have absolutely no hope of still having more than ten needles on it by the middle of January.

I'm still a little sad.