O Tannan... timber!

After I got home from work, my wife was wrapping some presents for secret Santa and the for the kids etc. I helped wrap a few myself while the kids were playing downstairs. When we were done, we had planned to decorate the Christmas tree. So, we called the kids up and had them help what they can. We got the camera out and took some photos. Now, whenever we take a picture, our son wants to take some as well. So, we let him do that. He still doesn't get the concept that his hand blocks the lens a little bit when he takes some pictures. My wife and I sat in front of the tree so that he can take our picture and we would see how it would come out. (some of them come out great, albeit it may be off-center).

As we are trying to tell him to take his hand away from the lens, I feel something flaky on my back. I turn around and it's the tree tipping over. I grabbed it as it fell over. Our son gets upset that the tree is down, but is soon consoled as I straighten it back up. We try several times to get it to stay straight in the tree stand to no avail. The trunk seems to be somewhat soft and the darn screws to hold it up wasn't helping much. At this point, I'm thinking, "O.K. we're getting a fake tree." My wife goes and gets some fishing wire and wrapped the tree with it and tied it to the window handle. And there was much rejoicing. So, as of now our tree is being held up by what we could with the tree stand screws and fishing wire. I felt like we were in A Christmas Story. Merry Christmas, indeed.