Oh! You better watch out. You better not cry. You better not pout I'm telling you why ...

December 12, 2008 - This is what I came home to on Friday after work...yikes! Our beautiful Christmas tree, the biggest one we've ever had was lying on the floor. Yes it's real, so that means there were needles ALL over the place and trying to find all of the hooks that had fallen out of the ornaments was going to be a real treat. So, what do you do?

I stood in the doorway to the living room and I began to laugh. Wes wanted to know what was going on and he came and stood beside me.

"How did that happen?" he just stood beside me and stared at the mess.

I was still laughing and probably a little overtired, "I have no idea"

"Look!" Wes said with a chuckle, "The top lights work now."

I looked and sure enough the whole top of the Christmas tree was lit up beautifully. I tried to ignore the fact that it was lying horizontal on my living room floor, but it was completely lit up. I had just commented to Wes the day before about the fact that the top strand of Christmas lights had gone out and I would have to try and figure out how to fix that. Well, the eight foot drop must have kicked the lights back into gear again. And there it was lying on its side in all its glory completely lit up from top to bottom.

Wes picked up the tree and there was water everywhere in the rug and in the large plastic bag that I had fortunately placed beneath the tree. I shrugged my shoulders, what are you going to do? It's just a tree and the rug would dry eventually, so I went back to making supper. Every once in a while as I stirred the kielke or the schmaunt fat I smiled to myself. I could hardly wait until Mark and Eva were here for supper. Eva, Mark's girlfriend was the one who helped me decorate it only two days ago and I was curious what her reaction would be.

A few minutes later they drove on the yard and when she walked in I told her to go and look at the Christmas tree.

Her mouth dropped open, "What happened?"

I started laughing again, "We have no idea, Wes was bugging me that we decorated too much on one side and it tipped over, but we really don't know. I guess we have a job to do tonight!"

She smiled her beautiful smile and with a little giggle she said "OK, sounds good to me!"

We spent the evening together barefoot, because of the water on the rug, cleaning up all the ornaments, scouring the rug for ornament hooks that were hiding everywhere. We laughed as we fixed our beautiful tree. We had such a wonderful time together.

As we worked, Eva turned to me and said, "I hope if it decides to fall again it will at least wait until after Christmas!"

I vacuumed up all the needles and turned out the lights. I turned back to look at the beautiful tree, all the lights were still working, it was back in the upright position where it belonged and I laughed again. After everything we had been through this past fall why freak out over a fallen tree. It wasn't going to change my life one way or the other, in fact it provided me with extra bonding time with Eva.

Christmas had already come for me in so many ways whether the tree was upright or lying on my living room floor. Every time I look at Wes and see how good he's feeling, how happy he is to have this break from his medication, it's a Christmas gift. Every time I have opened my Bible these past few weeks and reread the wonderful story of the birth of Christ Christmas has just curled up inside my heart and made a home...But, you gotta admit, God does have an amazing sense of humour!

"Moreover, when God gives any man wealth and possessions, and enables him to enjoy them, to accept his lot and be happy in his work—this is a gift of God." Ecclesiastes 5:19