Twinkle Lights to the Rescue!

When Hubby and I were married it was in early November, so our first Christmas came pretty soon thereafter. For the Christmas or two before our marriage, I'd been living in a teeny tiny apartment, so my Christmas tree was a 12 inch beauty that sat on my tiny dining table:

After moving into my Hubby's more reasonably sized place, we decided a real-sized Christmas tree was in order. We went the easy route and got a 7ft, artificial, pre-lit tree. A controversial choice, perhaps, but we were quite pleased with it:

There are lots of pro's for going the artificial route, but one drawback is that each year, with stuffing it back into its box, the tree gets flatter and more matted down. This year will be the 5th year we've used this 7ft, artificial, pre-lit tree. We always wait to put it up until the first Saturday in December, and leading up to it, Hubby and I chatted a little about. how long we thought this old tree of ours will last; how long we'll be able to fluff it up to presentability. How long is reasonable before getting a new tree?

So, Saturday evening, December 1st, we pulled out all the Christmas decorations and began assembling our tree. We got it all up and put together and plugged in the lights and, to our horror, a section near the top remained unlit, despite all efforts to resuscitate them. 

AHHH! No bueno.

Happily, earlier in the week, I'd picked up a couple strings of twinkle lights (the thought was that they would help flesh out and mask the matted-ness of our tree), and instead we used them to mask the gaping hole on the top of our tree. They worked quite well. Hooray!

twinkle lights to the rescue!

Guess we know now how long this old tree lasted; next year it'll be a new one for sure.

All finished