Hot Water Works LIke a Dream on Trees

The kiddos showing off the blankets their great-grandmother made them.

Not done with making Christmas presents and sending cards but at least we are back to getting some sleep. You will often find us crawling in bed with the kids at 8 or 8:30. This fall has left us in bad need of sleep. Kind of like Christmas Eve when we were awoke at 1:20 with a child wetting the bed. The same child that called us every day she was not here to inform us of how many days until Christmas.

Our oldest daughter who was sleeping with this grandchild then could not go back to sleep. I stayed up with her for a while after shooing all the other grandkids back to bed along with their mother. Then too tired to keep my eyes open, I went back to bed. At 4:30 a.m. my husband had to get up to go to work and it awoke one of the grandkids whom I then went off to sleep with, musical beds is a favorite past time around here. Then when most of the kids had awoken at 6:00, we began the 11/2 hours of opening gifts. We like to do it slowly. But no breakfast before presents because that is torture for kids and I am against such torture.

So now I am putting away Christmas decorations only because I have to get ready for school starting up next week and three birthdays parties. I rather regret de-decorating, as the kids call it. I am really enjoying the tree. It is so.... soft and green. I tried one of those tricks on Facebook and low and behold it WORKS! I buy my fresh trees the very beginning of December so I can get it right away in water instead of letting it continue to dry out. A fresh tree because they are a renewable resource and clean the air. Fresh because I can't stand the thought of putting a plastic tree in the landfill to take 50,000 years to decompose. I've imagined myself trying to explaining that to my Heavenly Father when we have the conversation about how I took care of HIS earth. Plus fresh helps support a farmer each year. I know, my brain goes where few men have often gone.

Love the backdrop for the tree!

 This year I figured I would try the Facebook trick because it just made sense beyond the lack of instructions.The tip was to boil water and then cool it for five minutes but the details were not in it. My Autism raised its ugly head as I wondered if they meant on a gas stove or an electric stove which an electric stove burner holds heat long after a gas does. They did not say take the pan off the burner so did they mean that? How hot your house is would make a difference also. Ours is rather cool. I know, I should have been a research specialist. In the land of confusion for lack of information, a land I know well, I just forged my own path because I could not bring myself to burn my poor tree. You can probably see now why we Autistic people shut down, overload of emotions and confusion because we process wa....y too much information. Keep it simple is not part of our network.

Changing my decorations to match the backdrop. Tree needs a twig star for next year.

So I changed the rules and went with hot tap water. The concept is that hot water opens the pores in the bottom of the tree. That is after you cut the bottom off of before putting in the water so you get past the sealed pores from dehydration. They did not mention that part in the instructions either. Cold water solidifies the sap and stops the tree from drawing up the water. That makes sense.

Nearly four weeks later and you can grip a branch on my tree and run your hand down the needles and rarely does one fall off. It is AWESOME!!! The tree sucked up water the whole time instead of the usual sucks up water for a couple weeks and then quits. I am definitely doing this with all my plants. Maybe not quite as hot a water but I am going to use warm water with my indoor garden I am starting. Surely roots like to be bathes in warm water instead of cold also.



Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas Season!