{"id":888,"date":"2008-12-06T14:11:29","date_gmt":"2008-12-06T14:11:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2008\/12\/a_tale_of_two_christmas_trees.shtml"},"modified":"2021-05-29T02:44:46","modified_gmt":"2021-05-29T02:44:46","slug":"a_tale_of_two_christmas_trees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2008\/12\/a_tale_of_two_christmas_trees.shtml","title":{"rendered":"A Tale of Two Christmas Trees"},"content":{"rendered":"

Milly will tell me I should have known better.<\/p>\n

Our 4-5 year old pre-lit Christmas tree has lost some light strings each year. I love the idea of a pre-lit tree, but the quality of the average mini light string means that the strings can start to go dark after only a year or two’s use. This year, I put the tree together and only about half the tree lit up. After weighing my options and looking online, I decided on a new GE tree<\/a> with ‘ConstantOn’ lights from Lowes<\/a> for $150.<\/p>\n

I picked up the last one from our local store last night. Turns out all the decorations are half off. I guess December 5th is the end of the Christmas season. When it starts well before Halloween, I guess that’s about right. Gotta make room for the Valentines stuff I guess. Anyway, I got the tree home and put it together and plugged it in. Wouldn’t you know, 4-5 branches of the ironically named ConstantOn lights were unlit and no amount of plug wiggling or branch shaking or fuse changing would get them on.<\/p>\n

So I called GE’s customer service line. Their trees are made by a company called Santa’s Best Craft<\/a>, ‘Best Craft’ also being rather ironic in this case. One of the reasons I bought the GE was the non-existent customer service I had with the last one made by a Chinese company named Puleo, now gone I guess. The friendly sounding lady on the phone decided I had a bad string and offered to send me a new one. “New branches, you mean, right?” I asked. Nope, just the lights, that’s all they’ll send. So now I have to re-string my pre-strung tree before I even use it? Have you seen how they are cable tied in place and interwoven into the branches? No way, not going to do it. I didn’t spend $150 (mind you, this is normally a $300 tree) so I could string the lights again. So I took it down and returned it.<\/p>\n

The whole setting-up-the-Christmas-tree experience has the potential of sending me over the edge every year (long time readers may remember my battle with the icicle lights<\/a>) so I’m fighting a serious bad attitude here. So I pray on the way to Lowes.<\/p>\n

I pray that God will help me make the right choice in trees when I get there so I don’t get angry. OK, that’s silly, I really don’t think God has a ‘right lazy-man’s-pre-lit-Christmas-tree in mind. What I really need is for help in being Godly and acting like His child in this. And then I began to think about the $150 I was prepared to spend. I had a perfectly presentable tree at home that just needed new lights. New lights would be about $10.<\/p>\n

So by the time I reach Lowes, I’ve decided. If I have $150 of disposable income, I’m going to dispose of it to someone who needs it more than I. I’m going to add it to our charity fund to be dispersed in our family meeting later. So I head toward the light isle, stopping to pick up a grille cover on the way. The cover they had will be too big, but it’ll work. <\/p>\n

Arriving at the light isle, they are out of lights, of course. So (and this is the part that Milly will tell me I should have known all along) I put the cover back and head across the street to Home Depot<\/a>. They’ve got the lights I need and a grille cover that’s just the perfect size.<\/p>\n

Lessons learned?<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Praying about it is always a good idea.<\/li>\n
  2. When you pray about something with a a clear choice between A<\/strong> and B<\/strong>, the spirit will frequently reveal that the answer is, in fact, seven<\/strong>.<\/li>\n
  3. Go to Home Depot first. \ud83d\ude00<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Milly will tell me I should have known better. Our 4-5 year old pre-lit Christmas tree has lost some light strings each year. I love the idea of a pre-litRead More A Tale of Two Christmas Trees<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4,2],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nA Tale of Two Christmas Trees - salguod.net<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2008\/12\/a_tale_of_two_christmas_trees.shtml\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Tale of Two Christmas Trees - salguod.net\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Milly will tell me I should have known better. 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