christmas in...april?

i have the absolute saddest story ever. well, sad for katie's anyway. one of the ladies i work with, tina, gave me the most awesome present ever. tina is my surrogate mom in california. she is me just older. loves to decorate, loves to chat, loves to bake, speaks her mind, loves pottery barn and has the two most adorable boys...ever. before i tell you what my fabulous gift was, let me set up how my gift came to be.

tina and i have bonded in the past few weeks. her youngest son, nick, turned 5 on april 7th. being a strong candidate for "2009 mother of the year" she was throwing the most fabulous (boy fabulous) pirate themed five party...ever. she hired captain jack sparrow (who is truly johnny depp's twin brother...hot!) to come to the party and lead the kiddos on a treasure hunt. since the middle of march tina and i have been conversing about the pirate party. what food to we eat at a pirate party? how do you construct a pirate ship in your back yard...with things we are throwing out of the victoria's secret stock room, etc. well, i had the fabulous idea that we should use the pirate bandana's and rope to tie up the "treasures". so, it was done. last wednesday after work i went to tina's so we could bundle the treasures. we put gold coins, and stickers, and pirate candy, and eyepatches and earrings in the bundles and tied them up tight. then we put them all...all 20 of them...into a real treasure chest. because tina is tina and has a craft store/hardware store in her house, she pulls out this huge piece of burlap...*light bulb goes on in katie's head*... "TINA!!!! we need to wrap the treasure chest in the burlap sack and tie it up with rope too! that way when jack is contducting the treasure hunt and the find the treasure they will have to rip open the burlap to find the treasure chest!!! (and i am talking a million miles an hour in a very high pitched voice/scream!)" so we do. and it looks awesome. we took the treasure out to the garage so that jeff (tina's husband) could bury it in the back yard. oh yes, it was buried in the back yard, and jack sparrow had this awesome compass that he could manipulate so the kiddos searched all around the back yard to find the awesome buried treasure. millions of tiny screams errupted from them when they actually dug up a treasure chest! awesome, totally awesome. and yes, she did have the front of a pirate ship in her back yard. with a sail, and a huge flag with the jolly roger on it. amazing.

ok, so as we were in the garage i noticed this box, not just any box, a box that looks like it contains a christmas tree...i am very good at spotting these type of boxes! i notice that the box says "flocked pre-lit tree"...what!!!!!! tina proceeds to tell me that she pulled this awesome tree out so that i could have it. what???!!!! it gets better. the tree was used on the floor at victoria's secret a few years ago. see where i am going??? it is a 7.5 foot white flocked tree with hot pink lights! i almost died! how fabulous would my hot pink tree be with all my red and silver and green ornaments? a thing of beauty. i am stoked.

then arrives captain buzz kill. i excitedly tell pace about my new tree and i am told that i have to pick. i can only have one. my 7.5 pre-lit tree (natural in color) or my new inheritence tree. sad. i think ya'll know what one had to go. it is still in the back of my car because i cannot bear to part with it. it is beautiful, it is amazing and it has to go away. i wish my mom lived closer so i could stash it in her basement...with all my other findings throughout the years. i am sad.

and because pace is gone this weekend, i have contemplated putting the tree up so that i can admire it for a while. and i am still considering it! christmas in april at katie's house! if i do put it up i will post pictures...but, if i put it up, it may never come down!