no.73 - Tree Trimmer

It is supposed to be one of those idyllic moments: Your family gathered around a fresh cut tree as the smell of pine fills your senses. Perhaps there are cups of eggnog and cookies while Christmas carols croon softly in the air. Boxes of sparkling ornaments are unpacked and laid carefully across the floor. Your children look up at the tree, eyes twinkling, looking for the perfect spot to place a shiny red Christmas ball while you share happy stories of tree trimmings past.

It's a lot to live up to.

You might, for example, have a four year old who skipped her nap so instead of wonder you get petulant insistence that all the ornaments be in the same place so they don't get lonely leaving old Snoopy, Santa, Raggedy Ann and Andy, and a whole host of other cartoonish ornaments, clumped on a sagging branch near the bottom of the tree.

It may not be exactly how we thought the night would go, but it's still pretty charming. Other, more disappointing scenes, I know, are unfolding across America as Christmas draws near.

It could be hours of untangling lights which, in the end, do not work because you jerked the wires loose at the cord or bit them in frustration.

Or maybe it's the artificial tree with incomplete instructions crashing to the ground, shattering grandma's priceless collection of Victorian glass bulbs.

Maybe it's your brother, after a helpful suggestion on how to best distribute the ornaments, shouting "Okay Mr. Engineer, you do it!" and throwing a fat clod of the shimmering tinsel into your face.

Or maybe it's Dad jerking on his coat in the hall, shouting that next year, we're not getting a tree.

Or perhaps it's a scene from back before electricity when, instead of UL approved lights, people put real burning fire candles on their trees and sometimes even survived until morning.

Ah, the stuff of memories.

Just remember that those ideal scenes they show you on T.V. commercials only last for 30 seconds and if you could edit it down and get the right music clearances, your life would seem just as magical.