[moving on | Late one November, we decided to take the kids to a Christmas tree farm to chop down our own tree. It seemed like a festive idea. What could possibly go wrong? All we had to do was choose our tree, chop it down, load it in the truck, pay the vendor and take it home. A Norman Rockwell moment just waiting to happen. What we didn't realize, though, was that estimating the size of a tree while standing in the great outdoors is harder than you might think. And we failed miserably. The tree we chose for our living room turned out to be enormous. I was convinced it had grown a few additional feet on the drive home. But by the time the lights and ornaments were added, it was one of the most beautiful trees we'd ever had. Until it came crashing down. I was the first one on the scene and yelled for my husband to come help. The two of us got the tree upright and soon discovered we had a twofold problem. First, the trunk of the tree was crooked. It zig-zagged all over the place and created a natural tendency to fall. Second, the tree stand we owned was for smaller trees like the ones we'd had in the past. It simply wasn't large enough to hold the tree in place for any length of time. Those two factors, combined with the weight of lights and ornaments, were a recipe for disaster. But we didn't give up. Before the angel was placed on top of the tree for the second time that night, we'd laid 10-pound patio stones against the tree stand. We'd also wrapped a long piece of lumber in Christmas paper and wedged it against the trunk for additional support. By the time the lights and ornaments were added and the tree skirt was placed over the patio stones, the tree was once again one of our most beautiful trees. No one who drove through our neighborhood oohing and aahing over the Christmas lights knew that our beautifully decorated tree was unable to stand on its own. Unless we told them, no one who visited our home knew that the long skinny present wed]