Finding a tree

Since my wife had to work today and my trombone blowing daughter had a lesson to attend (and my son was playing video games), my eldest daughter and I were left to our own devices and so we went tree hunting. As it turns out, the guy who usually sells us our tree each year, LEFT! I was so surprised.

He comes down from Wisconsin each year and sells the trees beside the grocery near our house. Well, he is usually here right up until a couple of days before Christmas and then heads out - usually leaving the trees behind. Well, I guess the year before last he must have gotten in trouble with the grocery store for leaving them, so last year when I finally showed up at his door step (or trailer step), he was running them all through a wood chipper! Argh! So, I quickly picked out a real beauty and paid him $20 for it (sometimes you get a real bargain if you can just rescue the tree from the chipper in time).

This time, he just left. I don't think he chipped them up and I don't think he sold them all because there were lots of trees on the lot just a day ago. This morning - nada! Argh. So, that meant we would have to look elsewhere for our bargain tree.

Well, a day ago, we went to the mall to pick up Mom's glasses and along the way we saw another tree lot that is part of a farm - there all year and selling Christmas trees every year. We had purchased one tree from them in the past but it was a bit of a drive. Well, since I was going that way for the trombone lesson, I just decided to go ahead and give them a shot.

The temperature was beyond cold! I guess that is just part of picking out a Christmas tree but this year, December has been colder than any I remember in a while. On the positive side, we have our snow still with us!

We found a nice tree (a Douglas Fir) and it was available at somewhat of a discount, so we threw it in the van (yes IN the van)! Amazing what you can get inside a mini-van!

One of the odd aspects of having children in college is that you must wait on the tree decorating thing until they return home. It just would not do to decorate the tree without them! Since the college pushes exams right up to the weekend before Christmas, that means we end up tree shopping one-week before Christmas. However, we compensate by leaving the tree up for a while!

Back home now, our tree is in the stand and I will soon be decorating it with lights and then the whole family will participate in the application of our many heirloom ornaments (many of the "kid manufactured" variety).

Here is hoping you have a nice holiday!

Jerry