All is calm.....all is bright....and ignore the woman cursing and fighting with the Christmas lights.

I love Christmas.....looooove it.

I love decorating for Christmas......loooooove it.

However, I will never ever - not ever - purchase a Frontgate Christmas tree again. 

Matt and I purchased that gem of a tree 3 years ago.  I had eyed it for YEARS.  It was a splurge....a big one.  Frontgate trees are not cheap, but after reading all about it I was sure it would bring our family years and years of pleasure. 

The catalog said that it has easy assembly - and it does! 
The catalog said that you easily turn it on and off with a remote - and you do!
The catalog said that it looks and feels like a real tree - and it's beautiful!
The catalog said that the lights WOULD NEVER GO OUT IN LARGE CHUNKS.

Ya, I'm calling HOGWASH on that one.

After only a few short years of Holiday delight with this tree the lights started going out in LARGE chunks.  I called the company only to find that the warranty had run out (really....why would you only have a ONE YEAR warranty on a Christmas tree)?!!!  Frontgate was not going to do anything.

So, I tucked some new lights into the bare spots...took a deep breath...and admired her beauty once again.

Until just a few days later when THREE MORE large sections of lights went out.

I bought some new lights and fought to take off ornaments and decorations to tuck the new lights in....and in the process looked a lot like Clark Griswold during the scene of Christmas vacation when he can't get the Christmas light to work.

However, I got them all fixed.

I was frazzled, but happy.

Then last night Matt and I were snuggled up next to the beautiful Christmas tree when - POP!!! - yep, a few more of those little beauties went out.

I was about to go bananas.  My husband just looked at me and smiled.

I made the executive decision that after this Holiday season I will unravel/cut/demolish every single strand of lights on that tree until they are all gone.  Afterwards, I'm going to buy lights that are GOOD and relight the entire tree myself.

Lesson Learned.

"Russ, we checked every bulb didn't we?"

"Sure Dad."

"Hmm...maybe we better go up there and check one more time..."

"Oh WHOA, look at the time! I gotta get to bed.  Still gotta brush my teeth, feed the hog, still got homework to do, still got those bills to pay, wash the car..."

--Clark and Russ talking about their non-working Christmas lights

Christmas Vacation