I used to love my Christmas tree.

Most years, I adore my Christmas tree. I bought it 3 or 4 years ago from Fred Meyer, on sale. It's a pre-lit artificial tree and a slimline style which is completely perfect for my tiny living room. I love a fake tree because I don't own a truck to haul home a live tree and I don't have a garage to let it dry out in. I love that it's pre lit because hanging lights is one of my least favorite things in life. I also love the fact that my fake tree does not have spiders on it nor does it fall over in the night because it's too big for its stand.

There are some things I don't like about a fake tree: the lack of tree smell, the fact that you can see metal where wood should be, and it's not a Noble Fir (my personal favorite tree.) I have an addition to that list this year. I hate the fact that an entire row of lights will not stay lit.

I have been working on this tree for the past 5 hours, on and off. I've taken it apart and put it back together again, plugging and unplugging everything. My arms are completely scratched up (one more thing I hate about fake trees -- they're scratchy and I will likely have more horrible scars on my arms because of today.) I've shed more than a few tears of utter frustration and that same stupid section is still unlit.

What this all means is I'm giving up and I'm going to start hanging my lovely ornaments on a tree that's not fully lit. Oh and I'm buying a new tree next year.

Will you all do me a favor? Please go give your fully lit tree a hug. Let it know how much you love it because like Joni Mitchell, Amy Grant and many others have sang, you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone.

p.s. Oh and my computer is still broken. Hug your working computers too after you get done hugging your tree. Thank you.