Christmas Tree Infestation

Jason and I came home from church today. It was like any other day... quick trip to Target, hit the grocery store and come home. While Jason was bringing in the groceries I decided to water the tree. As I bent down to pour the water in I noticed a spider-looking creature crawling up the base of the tree stand. I was afraid it was a tick so I called Jason over and then I noticed what looked like hundreds of little eggs and big mama bugs all over the tree skirt. Upon further inspection we realized there were hundreds of bugs crawling all over the tree. (See pics below) After researching online we discovered the bugs were probably aphids but without much debate at all the tree was thrown outside. Jason offered to buy a new one, or call Lowe's to get a refund, but we figured they'd just give us a new tree. I figure we're leaving in less than a week for Christmas festivities and the tree would die then anyway so we'll keep the rest of the decorations up and just go 'tree-less' for a few days. Definitely contemplating an artificial tree for next year. I'm not sure I can go down that road, but our next tree will be thoroughly inspected and shook out before it goes up!