Can I get a do-over?!

"Ya get what ya pay for!"

Well ain't that the truth! Last year I hit up some stores to rope in bargains on some post-Christmas sales-- and I walked away with a new Christmas tree for a whopping $25! I was stoked!

Well-- I pulled it out this year and was amazed at how the manufacturers could possibly fit a 7' tree into such a small box! Well, I was surprised-- until the "tree" was assembled.

Here's what the sorry-excuse-for-a-tree looked like:

The damn thing looked like a meth addict. Lesson learned, I suppose. Sadly, I was even more naive in thinking that a little garland and ornaments would fatten her up. So on I went with the decorations-- spending the next hour or so trying to beautify the little orphan.

Nice try, Gilbert. This pic doesn't do it justice but it was still as see through as a skanky piece of lingerie. I looked at it with my classic "Ewww! Gross!" face for about 12 hours before I headed out to buy a new one. All that face-scrunching is going to call for some serious Boto.

And down she went. She now sits on the curb, waiting for the next truck of junk collectors to scoop her up. Good riddance.

I'm much happier with the new tree. It doesn't look nearly as putrid as the last one.

And for what it's worth-- Ava sure seems to like it too!

And little Jack could care less!