It's true. I got it seven years ago. My cats have done their dead level best to destroy it. I have cemented it into a tree stand, and although it was prelit, I have covered it with lights since the lights it came with no longer work.
I am going to try to get one more Christmas out of it, though. I just need more lights. And if I drink enough eggnog, it will start looking better. Instead of beer goggles, it will be noggles.
The tree was priced at $29 and came with a wreath, so not counting the wreath, it comes to about $4 and change per year. But if I keep it next year, the price drops in the $3-a-year range. It's looking better already!
See, anybody with a checkbook can have a great-looking Christmas tree. Christmas-onomics happens when you are a journalist by trade (i.e., not one of your higher-paying gigs) and a writer on the side. Plus, it gets to be a game with me. How far can I stretch that buck without being a total tightwad?
It's that and I like to splurge on some things. My Dear Son laughs at my $3 and change-a-can coffee, but I will gladly plunk down some cash when all the family's together for a dinner out. I will wear pumps from Target to the office, but $100 Adidas when I run (cheaper than an injury or a heart attack).
The more I look at it, the more I like it. The cats can't do anything more to it than they already have, and it is impossible to knock over since it is stuck in a tree stand filled with 20 pounds of cement.
And there's an ornament for each of us. A guitar for one Dear Son, a mortarboard from when the oldest Dear Son graduated from high school, a basketball for the youngest Dear Son and a princess for the Dear Daughter. She hates it because she is not into princesses like when I bought that ornament when she was 5.
And for me, a little figure of Gina from "Dennis the Menace" because I sort of look like a grown-up version of her, only with the same hair.
That tree's looking better and better.
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