Christmas Tree Disaster

I started off this weekend with my dining room looking like this:

So I took down all the fall leaves and moved the table into the corner so I could start to assemble my new 12 foot Christmas tree. I had ordered it from Walmart.com and got it delivered to the Wal-Mart store in Benton so that I would not have to pay shipping. We will learn at the end of this long story that that was a VERY smart decision.

As I started to assemble the tree, I realized that the 12 foot tree was actually going to be 14 feet total. How? 12 feet of tree + 2 feet of tree stand = 14 feet total. So it touched my ceiling.

The below pictures depict my "What the heck?!?!" thoughts as I realize this tree is not only way too big, but also ridiculous.

I literally had to smoosh down the tips at the very top of the tree. No tree topper is going at the top of this tree.



So I started decorating the tree anyway. I had bought all things gold and red to do so.

I began with a lot of deco mesh:

Then I started to add red and gold ornaments:

It started to look great! If you like matchy-matchy trees that look like they belong in a department store entrance.

So after much time and effort, Kent came home from the deer woods. We both looked at the tree in silence and then with snarls on our faces decided that we both hated it. He helped me take down all the ornaments, the weird swirling sticks, the deco mesh, and then put the tree back in the box. It only took about 15 minutes, which is amazing considering it took me about 3 hours to put the tree and ornaments up!
                                          
                                Here is the last photo of the tree still standing.......

As quickly as possible I boxed up the ornaments, swept up mounds of gold and red glitter and vacuumed for what seemed like an hour.

And then put my dining room back the way it was.

Can we all say "ahhhhhh...." 

I am SO glad Kent didn't like the tree either. With every piece of deco mesh I wrapped around the fake tree and every fancy ornament I hung on the brances, I knew it just wasn't "me". We decided that we would go cut a real tree down and decorate it with our ornaments - you know, the special ones that mean something. We have ornaments that we both made in elementary school, have bought on trips together and have been collecting for years.

This is the saga that was my weekend. I returned everything: the ornaments to Hobby Lobby AND the tree to Wal-Mart... all 14 feet of it! Since I ordered the tree to be sent to the store I was not out any money for shipping.