Christmas ingenuity

I decided that it was time to decorate my place for Christmas.  I had been really looking forward to doing this when I got back from my vacation, with full intention of decorating as soon as I got back.  You see, my folks are coming to see me for Christmas and, since I was gone over Thanksgiving, I was feeling a little confused as to what time of year it was...so it became imperative that I decorate.  But then upon returning, I immediately caught the cold from hell, and all of my plans took a backseat.  So this weekend, it was finally time to haul everything up from the garage.  And so I did...

I have a little 4-foot tree that fits my place just fine.  I put it up and got it all decorated...and then tragedy struck. The cheap plastic stand broke and my tree fell down.  I was very distraught and went to bed to avoid becoming too depressed about my failed decorating effort.

However, things looked much brighter the next morning.  I woke up with ideas to fix my little tree, with potential engineered solutions...it is what I do and who I am, after all.  I decided to make my own tree stand.  I went to Home Depot and I started looking through the aisles for something that would make good legs for my tree stand.  I came across a Home Depot worker who was very supportive of my idea.  He showed me some metal brackets that were exactly what I was looking for.  Plus they were cheap!  I bought some screws and some new drill bits and went home to bring my idea to life.   And here it is...

 It's not perfect...I actually feel I could've done better, but it's not falling over so it'll do.  And it kept me from needing to buy a new tree.   Anyhoo, Merry Christmas!