Oh Dead Tree

Remember when I was talking about how much I loved our Christmas tree? And remember the "nice shade of brown" I referred to? Well, we've reached it. While it has been browning all week, I'm pronouncing the official TOD (yes, we watch CSI, so we know the lingo...this means time of death!) as today, Sunday, December 10. It's completely dead. When you walk by it, the gush of wind sends about 300 needles flying to the ground, as well as one or two ornaments. We've done everything right! And yet our last 3 trees have died very quickly. We've been analzying this all week of course, the ONLY thing we've done differently from the first year (the first tree did NOT die prematurely) is place it in a different spot. We're wondering if it's the heating vent. There is a vent right above it, blowing heat on it, that's all we can think of. I'm so sad. Christmas is still 15 days away. We'll try the real tree one more year (move it way from the heating vent), and if it dies more than 15 days before Christmas, we're going artificial!