In Which I Fail At Christmas

So, in all the hubbub of present buying and wrapping and singing at
various gigs and masses and trying to clean my house and keep up
with all my regular grocery shopping/cooking responsibilities, I*
neglected to get a Christmas tree.

I was feeling pretty bad about this, but while getting ready for my
3rd mass of the day (just before midnight), I had a creative
epiphany, and devised a plan.

I would take the Christmas lights, create a tree-like shape with
them by taping part of the strand to the ceiling and part to the
floor, and we would have a tree of Christmas lights! I could
visualize it in my mind, and it was beautiful.

When I got home from mass (at 2:00 a.m.), I went down to the
basement and got the lights. I started building my beautiful Tree of
Lights. I had to use duct tape, which interfered with my creative
vision, and it kind of sagged inward more than I had anticipated,
but it evoked the idea of a Christmas tree, and that's what I was
hoping for. And there it was, more or less the tree I envisioned!
And it was only 3:00 a.m., it was still possible to get 5 hours of
sleep!

I plugged the Tree of Lights in, so I could get the full visual
effect. The lights came on and they were good. And then, there was a
smoky *pop*, and every single light went out.

There was nothing to do but to just go to sleep. And as Loki said
the next morning, we spend 80% of our Christmas at other people's
houses anyway.