J&M got Maui'd!

So I got a call in the middle of the meeting I was running from daycare telling me that Elsy had a fever and I had to pick her up. Oh goody. I was not too surprised, as Elsy was complaining of being cold in the morning. I never took her temperature though. Her forehead felt normally warm. In any case, I had to rush out after the meeting to pick her up and the afternoon was a bit of a loss. Let her veg on the couch and watch television while I took the time to do some chores and finally toss out the tree that's been in our living room for over a month. It was much lighter than before, now that it was tinder dry, but it was also extremely stiff and needles were flying off of it with every step I took. I needed to get it out of the house ASAP. Those needles were actually painful if stepped on, or grabbed, or.. anything now that they were bone dry. (Tree pickup day was the next morning, and I had forgotten - so it was lucky that I tossed the tree that night.) The next day was spent

I had planned to put the Christmas tree out this weekend as it was starting to look a little dry and brown. I was able to remove all the decorations and lights, but the weather had made putting the tree out a little annoying so I left it in the house until less wet and icy conditions come about. Oh, did I not mention that we had a Christmas tree? Like.. a real tree that you had to water and the like? Must've slipped my mind. Anyhoo, the whole experience was not as bad as I thought it would be. I was surprised how cheap the tree was (we purchased it from Ikea), and the fact that the tree fit inside my car surprised me quite a bit. I never noticed the smell, but apparently my mom enjoyed it. Getting the tree set up and decorated as not as enjoyable, and even the take down so far has not been as onerous as I had expected. The pines on the ground were barely an issue and clean up so far has been quite cathartic. The whole ordeal has left me not dreading next year's tree chores.