Another Christmas Tree

The kids went back to school yesterday, Kevin went back to work on Monday.  Our vacation is over.  It was nice while it lasted.  The kids were wonderful, even The Babes, letting us all sleep in past 8 o'clock, sometimes past 9 o'clock.  But now it's back to reality - waking up to alarms and maintaining schedules.

And so the house must get back to its pre-Christmas state.
But not before putting up another Christmas tree.......

I wanted to make sure the pre-lit 9 foot Christmas tree I purchased (mentioned in this POST) actually worked.

I didn't want to store it all year and pull in out next Christmas to find out it is broken and needs to be returned.

So I set it up right next to our old Christmas tree for comparison.










First off, it was way easier to set up.  It only has 3 parts.   So right away, I am liking the new tree.  Plus it is pre-lit.  The old tree isn't.  This year I had problems finding a strand of lights that all worked and ended up throwing away 3 stands because half of the lights were out.  Yes, I did meticulously plug a working bulb into each non working space and still couldn't get all the lights to work.  That frustrated me so much, I began my search for a new pre-lit tree.

Here is part 1:

Here's part 2:

This is the part of the process that Kevin walked in on, and he said to me, "you know, it isn't much taller".

And part 3:

I didn't bother to fluff up the branches which is why it looks odd, especially the very top.  I just wanted to put it together and make sure all the lights worked, which they did.

And it is noticeably taller than our old tree, once you add the top piece.
 
Then it was time to pack away both trees.   Our old tree has hundreds of branches.

OK, not that many but it feels like it because each level is made of 8 individual pieces you have to stick into the pole and there are about 7 levels.

After removing all the branches and boxing them up

The corner was looking pretty bare:

So now I can't wait to put up my new tree next Christmas.  I've already bought a few more ornaments and a new star for the top (yes, more after Christmas bargains).