Take 'em down, Randy...

It is with much amusement that I've been visiting the posts at Mama Drama, particularly those of Kate, who recently recounted her roles OTHER than Mama, and Min, who jumped on the Randy-bandwagon. Read their posts here: http://blogs.chron.com/mamadrama/.

Poor Randy, beleaguered husband of Kate, whose sin is having not taken down the Christmas lights just yet, though we are entering the fourth week of January. I tend to take Randy's side - mostly because up until last weekend, my fully-decorated Christmas tree was STILL in my livingroom. I did finally remove lights and ornaments last weekend, so my NAKED tree stood in my livingroom for the past week.

Monday is bulk and yard waste day on my street, so it was finally time to take down the tree. I picked it up (and it was VERY light) trying not to get stabbed by the sharp, dry needles - next to impossible. As I went over the threshold, the tree stand caught the sill and spilled a bit of water on the carpet.


Frankly, I was shocked that there was still water in there. I wrestled the tree and stand down the front steps and laid it down in the yard to unscrew the stand. Can you say rotten wood? And the smell!!!! OMG, I haven't smelled anything like that in a LONG time.

I finally got the tree out of the stand, and the bottom of the stump was BLACK. And smelled. And was sort of gooey and wet.


I dragged it out to the street and put it on top of the pile of cuttings I'd made just this afternoon, where it laid on its side and looked forlorn.


Then I turned around to go back in the house and saw this:

Yes. Garlands on the handrails and lights on the eaves.

Maybe I'll take them down tomorrow. Tonight, I'll be cleaning rotten-tree smell out of my carpet...