My own Tale of a Tree

Last week I was reading an entry on C. Beth's Blog called Tale of a tree and had a bit of "tree envy".  Like C. Beth I've been wanting a taller, pre-lit, tree for years. To be exact, I have wanted one since we moved into this house in 2008, with its 10' celings.  Seeing the prices of the tree I longed for crushed that dream fairly quickly, but being the bargain shopper I am, I consoled myself that first year with the fact I'd be able to get a great deal after Christmas . . . WRONG.   Much to my dismay, the tree of my dreams sells out well before Christmas and there are none left in the after-Christmas clearance sales.

For the past several years I have wrestled with the lights and dreamt of the day I would have a pre-lit tree of my own.  Year after year I would torment myself by looking at trees and lamenting their outrageous prices.  I had told (warned?) my husband that I had a price in mind that I considered "reasonable" considering how long we would have it and that if I saw it for that price I would want to buy it.

Yesterday I had the luxury of going shopping by myself for a couple of hours.  I was at a large outdoor mall that has pretty much every store you can imagine: a grocery store, restaurants, bars, Old Navy, Ross, Target, Kohl's, etc.  On my way from one store to another I passed Target and decided to walk in. On a whim I went to the seasonal department where I think I might've heard angels singing (ok, maybe it was just a motion activated snowman) as I saw the tree of my dreams "price cut" to my "reasonable price"

 I had no cart and my car was about half a mile away on the other side of the mall, but I mentally started strategizing how I'd get this tree home as I searched for it's box underneath . . .nothing.   I called a store employee over, who broke my heart when he told me they were out of stock.  I asked about buying the floor model and was told they couldn't do that.  The employee told me there was one other store with that tree--about 15 miles away.  I called that store and they were sold out (they wouldn't sell me the floor model, either).

I left the mall dejected, but when I got home I looked my tree up on target.com where I discovered not only was it in-stock it was HALF PRICE!  Things got even better when I remembered that AAA members (like me) get 10% off at target.com when you link to Target's website from the AAA one.  I was practically shaking with excitement as I put my half-price tree in the cart and nervously looked to find out how much shipping would be.  It turns out there is FREE SHIPPING on all orders over $50!

All told I found the tree of my dreams for 60% off the "reasonable price" I was willing to pay in the store and am getting it shipped to my house this week!

I just set up our "old" tree Saturday.  Sunday morning I put the lights up and the kids helped me hang the ornaments, not having the slightest notion that the tree of my dreams would be on it's way to my house within a matter of hours.

Later this week the tree I have been dreaming about for 3 years will be mine, but the old one is already set up.  I told my husband "Don't worry, I'm not going to take this one down just to set up the new one and do it all over again", but I don't know I'm going to be able to restrain myself . . . .

What would you do?