ahhhhhh, it's done!

"The greeting cards have all been sent, the Christmas rush is through..."

I almost thought it wasn't going to happen this year, but I finally got all the Christmas cards done! (I blurred out the addresses in the picture!) I can't even tell you how good it felt to put them all in the mailbox this morning!  This has been the busiest holiday season I can remember!  We have been traveling so much this year!  It feels so good to know the cards have all been sent!  Hopefully you will get yours before the 25th, but if not...oh well!  They are on the way! :)

For weeks our living room has looked like this...here is 2/3 of our Christmas tree...

Our new tree that I loved so much has been a constant source of stress ever since we put it up.  It is prelit and we have had more lighting fiascos than I could ever imagine.  I am sure many of you don't want to know the details, but I just have to post them because it is unbelievable that Kevin and I have spent about 12.5 hours of time ensuring that it is actually working! Read on only if you want to hear all the details!  I think it is hilarious now!

In short, first the middle section of lights went out.  Kevin tested every bulb until he found the one causing the problem and fixed it.  

Approx. time- 2 hours.

Then, the top section went out.  Kevin tested every single bulb to find the broken one...never found it...Approx. time- 2 hours.

Kelly bought the Light Keeper Pro to find this mystery light causing so many problems.  Well after another 2 hours or so, NO LUCK and $20 wasted!

Next, Kevin calls Garden Ridge to see if we can exchange this tree.  No matter what you do, they do not answer the phone.  They tell you to send them an email!  WOW!

Kevin drives to Garden Ridge Pottery 3o minutes away to try to exchange the tree...they do not have them anymore.  

Approx. time- about 1.5 hours.

After that, the Christmas tree company tells us they will send us a new strand of lights and we can replace the broken strand.

In the meantime I am sick of only having 2/3 of a Christmas tree, so we put the top on and I quickly put on a stand of lights until the new strand arrives.

One week later, new stand arrives.  We take tree apart again, remove ornaments, re-move broken lights (which takes FOREVER), re-strand each new lightbulb only to find out that the strand they sent us is toooo short!  

  Approx. time- 4 hours, I am not exaggerating!

I am about to lose it at this point and we consider returning the entire tree and just not even having one at all this year.

But, my final effort was to go to Wal-Mart, buy a 50 strand of lights and finish the section that we did not have enough for.  This does not look the same though because the lights that came with the tree were different than lights sold in stores...but we are exhausted and have decided this will have to do for now. 

Approx. time including removing broken strand, adding the new lights on the pre-lit clips, putting tree back together and re-doing all ornaments- 1 hour

TOTAL TIME- 12 HOURS!  

I can not believe it!  I didn't realize it was that much until writing this post!  

No wonder I feel so far behind this year!

Soon I will get a picture of the finished tree...what an adventure this has been.  We would have returned it sooner had it not been SO hard to find a tall and skinny tree in the first place!

So, sorry I haven't posted more pictures of our house decorated.  I had planned to, but obviously didn't have a chance!  I am just so glad it is finally working now!