Friday, December 12, 2008

Oh christmas tree, Oh Christmas tree...


So, last week we bought our first live Christmas tree! We chose a beauty, a 3 foot little thing. It was the only one we could fit easily into our car, and the price was right, $9. We were so excited to have a tree that we decided to go ahead and spend some money on decorations. We bought an $.88 box of candy canes at Walmart. Mysteriously enough, there was not a trace to be found of them by the second day, only plastic wrappers littered throughout my house. Can't figure out for the life of me where they went to... :D Needless to say, I'm NOT buying anymore candy canes for that tree.

This is a picture of Claire in her awsome fort she built, with our little tree in the background.



I'm sad to announce that after last night, we no longer have a need to decorate our little tree. I noticed yesterday that I had little bug bites on my arms and legs. I've heard before of someone getting a flea infestation in their house thanks to a live Christmas tree, and at first I thought that was my problem. Then however, I realized that there was no earthly way the fleas were biting my arms, hands, legs, and tummy all at the same time without me seeing them at all. After a few hours and a mammoth breakout of hives, I realized that I was having an allergic reaction to the tree!!! I guess it kicked into high gear once the tree started drying out and the needles were dropping everywhere. We disposed of the tree immediately, vacuumed, and emptied the bag into our outside trash. Happily enough, my rash hasn't progressed, I'm still rather itchy though. I'm hoping I wont have a repeat of last night--waking up every hour or so because of unbearable itchiness! I love real trees, I love the look and smell of them, but I think we are going to be an artificial tree family from now on. (It's definitely not worth the great smell!)
Well, it was fun the first 2 days we had it. :)

9 comments:

Amber said...

Wow! I can't believe you are allergic! Well it settles that battle for ya! Here's a tip about candy canes. In my house growing up Santa often brought the candy canes with him. We would wake up to find the canes on the tree Christmas morning! It saved weeks of candy comas!

Shelise said...

Oh sad story. It was a cute little thing though.

Taralee said...

Man, that really stinks! This is our first year with a fake one in a while. But if I was in your situation, there would be no question! At least you had only bought a tiny tree, wonder if it would have been worse if there had been more tree there??

Liz Wilcken said...

How sad!! I'm sorry you're allergic!

Amber said...

Jeremy had a good point. It might not be the tree you are allergic to but maybe it was sprayed with a pesticide. Otherwise you might have had a reaction while in nature....camping and such. Just a thought.

Annie Sunshine said...

That IS so sad...we have a live tree every year, and for the most part, it is fun. I love picking it out and the smell. BUT, it always is too dry by Christmas, and Wade won't let me leave the lights on for more than an hour if it is dry because he is paranoid about it starting a fire. From the beginning you have to worry about making sure it stays watered all the time, (and I'm really not good at remembering to water plants...just ask my garden).

At any rate, I think there are quite a few advantages to a fake tree. I tried to convince Wade to get a fake one this year and buy a really good pine air freshener and/or candle, but I couldn't get him to go for it.

The Tew Clan said...

Hey Bryce and Jean! Your girls at too cute! Sorry to hear about the allergic reaction~that isn't any fun!

Elizabeth said...

Poor Jeanie--don't worry, live trees are definitely not all they are cracked up to be. I am glad to see that Claire is a little fort builder. I love to see their imaginations at work.

Anonymous said...

I'm so sorry to be RESPONSIBLE for your allergies! I still say you need a good perscription med. One pill a day does it for me!

Love , Mom

PS I love, love, love the music on all my girls' blogs. I heard them all today!