Can't See the Forest For the Tree

After a one day hiatus from Christmas decorations, we were back at it today. It is the big day around our house as we begin to put up the Christmas tree. Notice I said begin, I did not infer that this was a one day job. In all my years since we moved to Arizona, we have never been able to put up the tree in a single day. Part of the reason for this is that the tree itself in 9 feet tall. When we moved to Arizona, we bought an artificial tree. Partly because real trees had become so expensive, partly because I could never find a tree that looked just right. The other reason it takes so long to complete the decorations is my fault. I am a light junkie. I am under the belief that you can never have to many lights on the Christmas tree. For this reason, I insist that we have a minimum of 1000 lights on the branches of the tree. In order to put that many lights on the tree, it becomes necessary to wrap each branch individually. This takes a tremendous amount of time and patience neither of which I have an abundance of in my life. We have decided that the best way to attack the tree decorating chore is to break it up and use a tag team approach. So Trina and I take turns wrapping lights and walking away to cool off from our frustration level. I know I should just go out and purchase one of those trees that already comes decorated with lights but again I haven't found one I like. This year, Trina decided she would try to install the lights while I was at work and the kids were at school. By the time I returned home this evening, I could tell she was in a less than stellar mood. To try and help her out, I offered to fix dinner. She was grateful for my offer until she realized that I meant I would go and pick up a pizza. For some reason, she didn't think that was quite fair. She worked hard all day putting up the tree while I came home and called to have a pizza delivered. Looks like I will be spending some time doing manual labor so that the scales of marital justice are again level.