Worth more than the tree!

Tree Decorating, Part 2: Some of the story that I forgot to tell:
While I was putting on the three strands of lights that we used last year, I was quickly realizing that the way I was putting the lights on the tree, those strands were not going to go far. When I told Emily, she stated that I was doing a great job and then when I began to stress again, she said "Teresa, we live in a civilized society and Walmart is just up the road." She left and came back with 4 new strands. When I had gotten through 3 strands, we stared at how little progress I had made and I volunteered to go for 4 more strands. "Surely that will be enough." I got home, continued with the lights, continued to apologize to Emily. She just kept assuring me that she liked a lot of lights and I was doing a great job. 4 more strands later, Emily was back out the door. I was convinced we would only need two more strands, but we wisely decided she should buy 4 more and if we didn't use them all, she could return them. I was almost to the top with the 4th strand when I realized I wasn't going to reach at my continued rate of lights to branch, but it wasn't enough for another strand, so I began to stretch them out a bit. I can totally tell every time I look at the tree. If you look at the picture, you can see a big red bow right under the star. It helps to disguise the lack of lights! :)

When all was said and done, this was Emily's comment (after much gushing about how wonderful the tree looked, of course): "There is more money in lights on the tree than I paid for the actual tree!" :) We were both okay with that.

And thanks to Dad and Amy coming over with some string, the tree no longer leans!

If anyone wants lessons on how to put fifteen strands of lights on a 6 foot tree, I'm thinking of having my mom come and teach! Any takers?!