Saturday, December 13, 2008

Oh Christmas Tree


We had great aspirations of going to a U-cut place to cut our tree this year. Last Saturday the weather was perfect for it. But my dad was here and we don't usually get our tree until two weeks before Christmas. The plan all week was to get it today.

The day dawned wet and dreary. I had a migraine hangover. The van needed new tires and the previous owner had put wheel locks on it and we couldn't find the key. Ducky spent the better part of the day taking care of the tire problem, safety first. It wasn't until almost dusk that we headed out to get a tree.

So we ended up going to the tree lot that we use every year. Somehow we always end up there. The boys like it because they give them Hot Wheels cars. We had our own personal tree shopper. He ran around and found a Noble fir, that was about 6 feet tall, not too fat, but nice and full. He trimmed the lower branches and gave it a fresh cut. Then we were on our merry way.

Once upon a time, putting the tree in the tree stand caused excessive cursing and perspiration. Now, we have a beautiful cast iron stand that works the first time and makes everyone happy. I picked it up for $20 at a post Christmas sale before sweetP was born. Then we didn't get to use it for years because we got such little, tabletop trees to keep them out of the reach of little hands.

After dinner the boys helped decorate the tree. I had threatened to not get a tree this year when I was abandoned by the entire family last year to decorate the whole thing myself. We had fun seeing the special ornaments again and remembering years past. My job was to unpack and hand out ornaments and Ducky and the boys hung them. Ducky was attempting to get the boys to put them on all over the tree and to find strong branches for the heavy ornaments. The boys just went willy-nilly and put them wherever. There was one branch that had four ornaments on it.

In the end it is beautiful. I just have to avoid looking at Darth Vader.

6 comments:

-Ann said...

We never put up a tree because we're never home at Christmas. I can tell it's tree season though, since I see the trucks carrying them to the lots and get to read interesting tree posts. In fact, I just read my dad's Christmas tree post this morning.

What's the deal with Darth Vader? Are you afraid of him or is an aesthetic issue? I'm terrified of both Darth Maul and The Joker.

laurie said...

it's lovely! i cut my own once. funny story. i'll tell it some time.

sorry about the migraine, but i'm glad it's a hangover and not still the actual migraine.

you and me, we suffer...

Jadie said...

Darth Vader, hah! Where on earth did you guys get that ornament?! Last night we exchanged white elephant gifts at a Christmas party. One gift was a miniature leg lamp (a la "Christmas Story"). It came in a wooden crate marked "Fragile." I think that's Italian...

You've seen "The Christmas Story," right? Otherwise, this comment won't make any sense!

Jadie said...

Oh, the miniature leg lamp was an ornament--thus tying into your Darth vader comment...

the rotten correspondent said...

I think your tree is beautiful. It always amazes me that something as fun as getting a tree always turns into a fiasco of some kind.

I'm hoping to avoid the Darth Vader on my tree this year. Somehow it never made it in from the garage. ;)

LCM said...

I am relived to know that we are not the only ones who had to live through the cursing and perspiration. You can send Darth Vader our way, we are big fans.