Our Christmas Tree Story

In my younger years

Almost every year, I have had a Christmas tree up in my home. Growing up, my parents would take us out to the tree farm and we would pick out the best tree. To ensure we had the perfect tree, I would continue to look even after my family had picked one out. It had to be perfect!

The tradition continued. Living in Naperville, by myself, I would go to a store, pick out a real tree, get it home and somehow get it up in the tree stand without any help (to be honest, I am still unaware how I did that and why I insisted on it). One year, I came home to find a tree on my floor and a total disaster in my living room, which lead me to maybe one Christmas without a tree and an artificial one in the years to follow.

After marriage…

After Josh and I got married, we continued to use my 8 ft artificial tree for a few years. Although, our living room has vaulted ceilings with a cat walk, so Josh always thought my 8 ft tree looked silly. So, we bit the bullet and bought a beautiful, pre-lit, 12 ft artificial tree in November of 2016. Although it wasn’t real, I loved this tree. It was tall and thin and perfect!

The 12 Pains of Christmas

We already had found our perfect tree, check, so we put up our tree on November 27th. Josh dreads the day that we put the tree up and all of the Christmas decorations come out and invade our home. This year, he started to put our artificial tree together and while he was rigging up the lights… guess what? We started to notice that several areas of the lights were not working. After multiple attempts of changing out the plug fuses, we tried again and nothing. As we worked up, which I insisted that we try, they continued to not work! Ugh!

A little background on Josh, he does not and will not spend hours messing around with things that do not work. He was ready to toss our 3 year old, beautiful, pre-lit, 12 ft, tall and skinny tree on the curb. I suggested that we just add our own lights on top of the others and he threw out a line I often use, ta-ta-tacky. Double ugh!

Warranty, yeah right!

I do what I do best and called the store where we purchased the tree ready to chew them out! They sent me to the tree company and I spoke with a lovely (not-so-much) women. She let me know that there is a 3-year warranty on our tree and our warranty had expired. Really? And how did she know what day I purchased the tree? How could she presume it would be expired? I was informed that if I could find a receipt, it would be considered. Now I do typically keep most receipts, but to find it would have been quite a task.

So I decided to look back at my pictures from 2016 and see what day we decorated the tree presuming it would be the day we bought it. Are you ready for this? November 26, 2016!!! Three years and one day. Are you kidding me?!? Somehow, I was not surprised to find myself in this ironic situation!

So, our beautiful, 3 year old, perfect tree went back into the boxes and on the curb. Sadly, I was not the one having a breakdown about it. William had been asking, begging, and pleading to decorate our tree for days – so for him to see it go back into the boxes and on the curb was dreadful. No perfect tree, uncheck.

Our New Tree

Wait! I’m sorry, who did you say picked out the tree?

After the devastation of our gorgeous, pre-lit, 12 ft tree sitting outside on my curb, Josh informed me that he would like to get a real tree this year. I was surprised but totally game! I thought it would be so magical to take the kids and find the perfect tree. Josh, like many husbands really tries to “fix things” and make projects more simple. Although he typically believes that he is thinking of me, he often forgets what makes me tick. So, once he called to let me know that the people at the Garden Shop had picked out our tree, I was a bit apprehensive. Wait – what? You haven’t even seen the tree? Most importantly, I haven’t seen the tree!!! I was cautiously optimistic to come home and see the glorious tree.

Upon our arrival home, I forget Reece’s exact words, but it was something along the lines of, “Colie is going to freak out!” And I did. I turned the corner and found this…

Little full, lotta sap

Now, what you cannot appreciate in the above picture is the fact that the tree is taking up the whole entire walkway. I pretty much panicked when I walked in and saw it! What was my husband thinking? In his defense, the tree was completely wrapped when he brought it into our home. Then he unleashed the beast! I mean, there are no words! Josh was trying to convince me that it will work with a bit of a trim. Uh huh. I told him that we would make it work because I was not spending any more money on a tree this year.

I was not the only one who was becoming anxious

William began to quickly pick up on my anxiety and he started to become upset. He said he didn’t like the new tree and wanted our old one back (me too Bud).

To keep my anger and anxiety in check, I preoccupied my thoughts with vacuuming up what was formerly my rug that had been transformed into a bed of pine needles. Clearly the hum of the shop-vac had tuned out what Josh was doing behind me! I turned around to see him sawing off tree branches from the back of the tree! Aghhhh! I screamed, “what are you doing?!?” He was sawing, yes, you read that correctly, sawing off not just one, but two, large branches off the back of the tree! NOOOOOOO!

What had been an oversized, too-big for our home, gigantic tree was now all of the aforementioned, plus it now had a giant hole in the back of it! Breathe, breathe! But I just couldn’t. I kind of lost it on Josh! Screaming, “You trim from the outside in, you cannot take off entire branches! Now we have a HUGE tree with a gigantic hole in the back!” Unfortunately, William was present during this discussion as well and was really getting upset. He was tearful and said he did not like our new tree.

Removing yourself from the situation

I needed some air and to be honest, William did too. We left for a bit to run a couple of errands. William was really concerned about the tree and I’m embarrassed to say, my reaction to it. He said to me when we were in the car, “Mommy, I’m not having any luck with that new tree.” I told William, “You know what Bud, I am not either, but it will be okay.” As I began to explain to him that our new tree was not what Christmas was about, I realized that I clearly needed to remind myself of the same thing.

Our Tree in a New Light

Upon our return, the tree was still there. We were pivoting it and turning it trying to find it’s good side. Yes, I said the tree’s good side. Our dilemma was complicated because where the tree sits in our home allows you the opportunity to appreciate the beauty of the tree from three different sides. Soooo, one giant hole could still be appreciated no matter how we turned it. “True meaning of Christmas, true meaning of Christmas.”

Word had spread in the neighborhood about our amazing tree. Our friends came to check it out and they were stunned to say the least. My friend, Kellie, who helps me keep things in perspective suggested that we try to “tie up some branches.” Okay, let’s do it! So we put Josh under the tree and we began to lift up branches using zip ties. She was really starting to look pretty good.

A different perspective

Two different pizza delivery drivers came by our house that night (long story) and their reactions were priceless! Each of them were mesmerized by our tree! The decorating of our gigantic tree had commenced! The Christmas love and magic I believe so strongly in was going to come through in this tree! William was very proud of where he put each ornament and he truly enjoyed decorating it! I mean, we may have had 3 ornaments per branch, but she was really starting to become a beauty!

True Meaning of Christmas

Although it took several different nights to complete our tree decorating process due to needing 10 feet of lights, hundreds of ornaments, our large ladder, and stamina – we did it!

After we were done decorating, William stood back and said, “I love our Christmas tree! It is so beautiful!” And it truly was! It is amazing how we can get so caught up in the nonsense of Christmas, whether it’s finding the perfect tree or dealing with Christmas lights. We get so stressed trying to find the perfect gift for everyone, the sales, and craziness of shopping. But as William and I were on our drive, I had explained to him, and needed to remind myself of what Christmas was really about. In our home, it is first and foremost about the birth of our Savior, Jesus and what a glorious day that is! Additionally, it is about the love, magic and belief that we carry in our hearts especially during this time of year. Christmas is a time of giving and remembering all of our family and friends.

So as stressed as I was initially with our ginormous Christmas tree, we have all embraced it and love it! It is a comical story I hope our children remember, can laugh about, and share with their children one day. Our Christmas Eve service today with the beautiful music and glorious message had Reece and I moved to tears, so those are the moments to cherish and embrace, not what our tree looks like.

P.S. I’ll be sure to share part II of this story after we figure out how to get this gigantic tree out of our home after Christmas! Wish us luck!

MERRY CHRISTMAS Friends!

Love, Josh, Nicole, Reece, William, and Rudy Nyberg!