I’ve been longing for this moment ever since Deb carted our first ever REAL Christmas tree into the lounge. It’s been a tormentuous affair watching this no-longer-live tree pine (pardon the pun) for my compost heap.

The kids were counting down the sleeps until Santa arrived (yer…we do Santa in our house) while I was crossing off the days until the tree was finally MINE!!!!

Each day it got a little bit drier and a tad droopier until my wonderfully accommodating wife said “Enough was enough!” Apparently, the drool on the carpet was becoming unsightly. So, off came the tinsel, the adornments and any unpresented gifts were packed into a box.

And, before you could say “Where did that Christmas tree go?” I had the mulcher set up and was madly lopping its limbs. Oh the Joy! How good is Christmas??

Five minutes later, the whole tree – minus the stem – had been blitzed into my compost heap and that wonderfully pine fragrance covered up the sins of Christmas preparations past. Unfortunately, the stem was just a little too wide for my shredder so it will head to the local refuse site where they will put it through their gigantuan mulcher and sell it back to me at $5 a trailer load.

My only regret is that we didn’t get a bigger tree.