Christmas Tree

Its that time of year. Two days after Thanksgiving Dinner, Allison and I went Christmas tree shopping. We were up in the mountains with my family. Allison and I had a great breakfast at Shatley Springs; an out of the way, home cooking place near the Virginia border. On the way back, we found an older man selling Christmas Trees cheap. We found the right one (a 10 foot Frazier Fir), cut it down, gave the man fifty bucks, and put it in the truck.
The real fun was yet to begin. The larger the tree, the tougher it is to put up. We spent over two hours trying to get it to stay put. Allison was getting frustrated and we were both getting tired. All four legs of the tree stand just did not want to be on the floor at the same time. We finally had a great idea. We put a large floor pillow under the most difficult of the legs. Finally the tree stayed put.
This experience reminded me that getting frustrated does not help anything. You see it in sports all of the time. A team is doing great until they get frustrated, then nothing seems to go right. However, if we'll just calm down and collect our thoughts, we can get the job done.