The sad task that marks each January.

When the house goes from smelling of Christmas Cheer to reeking of Woodland Death...it's time to take down the tree!...and the decorations...and the lights.

Oh, and throw out all the leftover cookies, pints of egg nog, candy canes and other assorted holiday treats.

So last weekend I spent AN ENTIRE SATURDAY forcing 4 boxes worth of decorations back into the very same 4 boxes the decorations came out of:

Then I moved on to the sad task of dethroning the tree. Here you have a brief photo history of "Frank" the Christmas tree - as he was named by one of the kids:
The awesomeness of the $40 Lucky's parking lot tree could not be denied:
But sadly, as the needles fell, and the smell of woodland death permeated my house, I had to post the eviction notice. Some people, I WON'T SAY WHO, were not enthused about stripping the tree:
But eventually, Killer Diller took care of the removal of the lights...by watching me wrap up the lights. Which of course would not quite fit back on the VERY SAME REELS they came off of:
The tree was even less enthused about the stripping and eviction:
As the eviction was carried out, begging and pleading could be heard. I swear I heard echoes of the same begging and pleading all up and down the street:
But what is this? Has the tree found a friend to spend its last moments with?
You were a good tree, "Frank", and we look forward to welcoming some cousin or sibling of yours next year.