The Christmas Tree Workout

Mark has been pushing to get a pre-lit Christmas tree for several years. The only reason he's given in favor of it is that it's more "convenient". It wasn't enough to convince me. I was resistant for several very good reasons.

1. If the lights go out, you have to buy another tree, not just a $2 string of lights. This seems impractical to me.
2. You can buy a plain tree and 10 sets of lights for far less than you can buy a pre-lit tree. So it doesn't make economic sense.
3. I really like the Andover "pencil" pine that we have. It's "thin" and doesn't take up the entire room. I've looked for a replacement that's a similar size and shape and so far, I haven't found one. To get something with a bigger diameter would involve moving more than a coat rack.

These three points have been the basis of my resistance. But now, my resistance is gone. It was melted away by five days of limping and pain. We put the tree up last week and I finally stopped hurting yesterday. Usually Mark gets the tree out, "adjusts" the branches and puts the lights on with minor assistance from me, and then we both put the rest of the decorations on together. This year, I had to adjust the branches and put the lights on without his help because he had to finish a report.

Let me tell you, getting those lights on the bottom branches is back-breaking work. Talk about sore muscles! I'm convinced that all I need to do is take the tree down and put it back up every day. All that squatting and bending - I'll strengthen those quads and glutes in no time. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Except my morning walk turned into a morning "hobble" for about five days. (But I'm sure I'm stronger now.)

Why didn't he tell me it was killing him rather than "inconveniencing" him? I had no idea until I did it myself. I'm convinced. Right now, I'm really excited about buying a pre-lit tree at the after Christmas sales. Of course, I'm still planning to keep the old one, just move it to another location and maybe not put so many lights on it. We may end up having to move furniture to accommodate a new model, but that can't possibly be any worse than all the stooping and squatting to get the lights on the old one. Maybe I can put the bottom part of the tree on a table to get those lights on before assembling the entire tree. I guess part of me wants to believe that "no pain no gain" applies to Christmas decorations.