The Coolest Tree Ever

Well, the holiday season has officially ended. Gifts have been unwrapped, tinsel tucked away, budgets busted. We're back into the regular ins and outs of everyday life. But although Christmas has past, I feel I would be doing an injustice if I didn't tell you all about my family's extra special Christmas tree that we got this year. Here's a picture of it:

I have to admit, I was surprised at people's reactions when I initially showed them this picture. They would politely smile and nod and tell me that yes, it is in fact a very pretty tree. They didn't even see what made it EXTRA special! If you did the same thing, take another look. See it now? Hint: it's not the popcorn (although not only is my family so epic that we have popcorn on our tree, we're epic to the point that it's the same popcorn that my parents strung for their first Christmas together 28 years ago).

Hopefully by now you've seen what I'm talking about. If not...well, you might want to invest in a pair of glasses. Either way, though, here's a close up of what I'm talking about:

Yes, our Christmas tree seemed to have its own built-in mini version of the Charlie Brown Christmas Tree. Before we started decorating it, my dad was pulling down some of the branches that were still tucked among the main limbs, when we came across this one. He went to pull it out, but it seemed to never end! When the whole branch finally came out it just looked like a very strange arm, stupidly hanging on the side of our tree. We laughed about it for a minute, but soon decided that the awkward limb needed to be amputated. Dad grabbed the cutters, but then we thought about it a bit more and said, "Ehhh, maybe we'll wait a little longer."

We decorated the tree, quickly adding a single red ball ornament to the protruding arm. This was soon followed by my dad's airplane ornament (such a great spot to make it look like it was flying!). The more we decorated, the more we realized...we just couldn't cut the branch. Some natural hiccup may have caused it to be a little different than the other Christmas trees out there, but to us, that's what made it special. In a strange but awesome way, that quirky little arm was what made us feel like that tree was truly meant to belong to the Phelps family.

And there you have it. The Phelps family Christmas tree of 2012. Our extra special tree.