Water your Christmas Tree

I hope my last blog was not misleading.

I may have made it seem like a farm fresh Christmas tree is a blissful, fill-your-home-with-the-scent-of-pine sort of experience, without drawback.

The reality is, there is responsibility that comes with a real Christmas tree. Because, seriously, a dried-out tree with electricity strung through it is a serious hazard. But all you have to do is water it. That's it. Simple. Just add water.

The problem is, I spent so much time last week admiring our beautiful tree, that I forgot to be responsible and water it. I also thought Tim was watering it; he thought I was.

So yesterday, when I realized the potential neglect of our fur tree friend, I ran over to it to check the base.

Dry.

Bone Dry.

I added water immediately. Tim did research about this sort of dry tree mishap. The results were not positive. A few hours after the trunk of the tree is dry, a layer of sap forms over it, sealing the trunk. The tree will not take any water from this point on.

So, instead of taking immediate action at 11pm, we thought we should just be sure it wasn't taking water, so we left it overnight. And we didn't light it this morning, which was very confusing to Penelope.

Sure enough, 12 hours later, the water was exactly in the same place. We knew what we had to do.

I took off all of the breakable ornaments. Tim came home over lunch. I siphoned the water out of the base with a turkey baster. Then we carefully removed the tree from the base, I held it up while Tim sawed an inch off the bottom with a rusty old saw that is not meant for cutting tree trunks.

Not the typical way people spend their lunch breaks.

But the trunk definitely had sealed itself, so we are glad to have fixed it. And we have a new coaster.

All this to say, water your Christmas tree.