O Christmas Tree, O *@#* Christmas Tree!!

some things i haven't blogged about this last few weeks.

my other half has been in the hospital and had surgery.
(this happened right after i blogged about him not helping out with the christmas cards.)
(but, it's purely coincidental... honestly)
he's now home but is in need of some TLC and will be on the mend for the next while.
it's amazing how much you (I) don't realize how much you (I) take your (my) other half for granted.
that's how they get that title in the first place.
because they are the other half of your life.
you do one thing, and they do the other.
for example he does all the grunge work and i do the top show stuff.
it's worked up to now.
take yesterday for example.
i thought that i could put the tree up by myself.
(how hard can it be?)
this is usually his job.
and i, of course, am the director on the project.
'up a bit, down a bit, no, not there, THERE.' etc.

in order to put the tree up i had to ask a visitor, before he left, to get the huge box from its location behind the furnace, where it is stored way out of my reach.
and to lug it upstairs.
with two large boxes of decorations.
m.o.h. was lying down absolutely worn out after his visitor and i could tell it was killing him not to be involved because he's a 'doer'.
so off i went with a plan of action.

after a while, alerted no doubt by bangs, thumps, groans and loud swearing, he staggered upstairs to see what was going on.
there was i head in hands, exhausted, with tears of frustration rolling down my cheeks.
he flopped down, breathless.
'what the hell are you trying to do here?'
emphasis on the word 'trying'.

i had wanted to be precise about the project.
which is the way he would have approached it.
methodically.
so the first thing i had to do to ready the room was to take down the playpen which little granddaughter noonoo uses when she comes over.

25 minutes later i was spent.
to put the playpen away you have to fold it in the correct order as per the instructions on the INSIDE (wtf?) of the playpen's floor.
i.e.
pull up centre of floor to a height equal to the four sides.
press buttons on two short sides of playpen and release sidearms while pressing down
press buttons on two long sides and collapse playpen.
or something like that, but i couldn't actually SEE the directions.
so, this is what i did.
several times.
i was sweating like a fat lass in the chip shop.
and getting nowhere.
then finally it was down!
but it refused to fold into a neat pile as per the diagram.
i had legs sticking out everywhere.
how the hell was i going to put up a tree which required some assembly when i couldn't even do the simplest thing first?
m.o.h. in all of his patient wisdom directed me thru each task as he lay on the couch holding his incision and staples on his midsection.
he was trying not to laugh at me because it was painful.

fast forward - two hours later.
there is a tree in my living room.
it has lights on.
only half the lights work and some of the limbs are shall we say 'gaping'.
there are no decorations on it (yet)
that will take us into day 2.
and m.o.h. is having a lie in this morning.
i don't think he's up to directing me again!
please don't leave me a comment that says,
'maybe you should have just not bothered putting up a tree this year?'
because i've already thought of THAT!
in lieu of a picture of MY tree which is not picture worthy as yet i scanned google for something lighthearted to steal/borrow to illustrate this sad blog.
it's the best i could do under the circumstances.
which just about sums me up at the minute.