Apologies to the kitties...

Remember #2 in the entry below about my kitten-filled Christmas? Well, I kind of have to publicly apologize for blaming the little monsters for drinking all the water in the Christmas tree stand. While, yes, they were drinking water from the stand, they weren't drinking as much as previously noted.

See, my daughter filled the stand one evening and mentioned that the water level drops quite rapidly as you fill it. I waved it off, figuring there was just something blocking the particular area she was pouring it into and it was just soaking it up more slowly.

So then I do the filling the next morning and, uh, wow, I put about 2 quarts of water...into a stand that might hold 1 quart at a time. And I don't think the tree had a straw going to suck it up as I poured.

I stuck my fingers under the edge of the stand. CRAP! The carpet underneath is soaked.

Soooo....have you ever tried to replace the Christmas tree stand of a fully decorated and NAILED TO THE WALL tree?? Not as easy as it sounds. And the tree stand? How did my husband not notice when he attached the tree (in broad daylight outside!) that the water reservoir is cracked halfway down???

Hopefully the carpet will dry quickly. The raggy towel underneath the new stand to soak up the old water lends an impoverished look to the whole bedraggled ensemble. And now the tree's not losing ANY water out of the stand, which probably means it already sealed up its stalk and will be dead by the end of the week, leaving us with a 6-foot fire hazard in our living room.

My kids are never surprised when I take down the Christmas tree by noon on Christmas day. Christmas night ends up being the first good sleep I get since the moment the tree goes up.

When do the artificial trees go on sale? I"m thinking that plan sounds better and better. I'll just clean with Pine-Sol for that fresh chemically-treated tree scent to make up for the lack of the fresh tree scent.

Shannon