The Saddest Christmas Tree Ever

Scott and I came from different Christmas tree backgrounds – he was a firm believer in real trees while I was accustomed to fake trees, and each year he talked me into getting a real tree.  Since Scott and I have lived in this house, the Christmas tree has been set-up in several different areas of the living room.  My mom asked where we were putting the tree this year and I told her that I thought we would put it by the window at the front of the house.  She said that she remembered how sad the tree was the last time we had the tree there.  I had no idea what she was talking about and she went on to talk about the tree we had the Christmas that I was pregnant with the boys.  It wasn’t until I looked at the pictures that I remembered.

I was sick and completely exhausted when I was pregnant with the boys.  As Christmas approached I was past the halfway point of my pregnancy but still depending on anti-nausea medication to make it through most days.  It was the week before Christmas when we finally got a tree.  As I started to decorate the tree, the branches were not strong enough to hold the ornaments.  One by one I would place an ornament on the tree and all but the lightest would slide right off.  I gave up on the process and sat on the couch and cried – I was barely getting through most days at this point, the disappointment of the tree was too much to handle.

Here is a picture from the day that we decorated – you can’t see much of the tree, but you can tell that there are not many ornaments.

When I looked at that picture, I thought that we must have added more ornaments before Christmas day.  But when I opened the pictures from December 25th, I was surprised to see how bare the tree was – it looks so sad in the pictures.  This was the last year that we had a real tree.