a tale of two trees

Kent and Nicholas went out the first week of the month and bought us a tree. 
A beautiful, enormous, fragrant fresh tree.    
We sliced off the bottom, placed it carefully, and watered it.

And it never took in any water.
Within four days, our tree was crispy.
After a week, it looked like this:

Terrible. Wilted, ugly, and all the ornaments kept falling off.

And I'd love to say that my living room is usually cleaner than that, but let's be honest. It's usually messier than that.  (Although Nicholas usually wears pants...)
As a side note, a week ago I instituted Mommy's Ransom Shelf, where toys go that don't get picked up, and where toys have to stay for a whole week before they can be played with again.  Amazingly, the kids have started cleaning up when I ask them to.  

Messy living room or not, we simply could not stand looking at that dead, horrid tree any longer.

So we had a bonfire.  
The tree place we bought it from was incredibly kind and gave us a new tree, for free,
so on Saturday Kent and Nicholas came home with our newest beauty, 
who I'm proud to report is guzzling water faster than I can keep up with.

And Sunday night we got to decorate.  For the second time this month.

And now I'm even more appreciative of the beauties of a fresh, vibrant, non-wilted Christmas tree here in my living room.