Christmas is finally here.

Despite the fact that I'm one of those Christmas-begins-the-second-thanksgiving-is-over-or-sometimes-earlier kind of person, I persuaded my brother to try an experiment with me this year.

Objective: See how long we can go without putting up the Christmas tree.

Our theory? Parents only do this for their kids. Once we're old enough to reach the top of the thing, if the kids don't take initiative, it won't happen.

Our prediction: We'd make it to Christmas eve before they noticed the tree wasn't up.

However, this process nearly killed us, and we finally just went up to the attic, drug the tree down, and put it up.

And now, it can really be Christmas.