I don't remember ever having a pre-cut Christmas tree in all my life; I know we did have pre-cuts, but I was far too young to recall those years. The main tradition in my family was going out and hunting down a tree, saw in hand, whining and bitching in full gear. And tripping. Lots of tripping. My parents were cool like that.
No, not that kind of tripping. Tripping over cut stumps, blackberry brambles and whatnot.
But the big reward came at the end:
cocoa (or hot apple cider).
Yes, we had cocoa at home, but it tasted so much better out of styrofoam cups with water that was so hot it would burn the upper layer of flesh from your tongue--including all taste buds, which meant you couldn't taste the damn cocoa anyway.
And candy canes. We went to the places that gave away the regular size candy canes; those were the best. I hate the tiny candy canes. We just tromped our asses out in the wet and cold and spent a fortune on a tree that is going to be put on the curb (or the woods out back) in two weeks, so you better give us freaking full size candy canes.
This is a family tradition that I have continued with my own family now. The kids usually bitch and moan, as they did at the pumpkin patch. I actually considered buying a pre-lit artificial tree this year because my neighbor has one, and it looks so good. I couldn't quite go there yet, however, and when I mentioned a fake tree, the kids flipped out, which was nice. It made me think that they really do appreciate the ritual of going out and finding The Perfect Tree for our Perfect Christmas.
We didn't get to the tree farm until 4pm, which meant we had 15 minutes of daylight left to find The Perfect Tree.
Here they are, the tallest of our troops, armed (with saw) and ready to find the one tree that meets Mom's criteria for The Perfect Tree.
Paige checks it out:
Wayne checks the needles (these are Grand Fir, my favorite christmas tree):
Brittani...self explanatory:
Maya wants a little tree:
But we're thinking more along these lines:
Paige thinks she's found The One:
Ha, ha, ha, ha... No.
Maya wishes her opinion counted. It doesn't. Yet. Actually, the only opinion that matters is mine.
Paige lecturing her younger sibs. As usual.
And this is what Brittani thinks:
This picture is, like, the one picture that could sum up my older kids:
Shocking!
Searching high; searching low:
Still no tree:
See how dark it was by the time we threw in the towel? We ended up buying one of the pre-cut trees that they had at the entrance to the tree farm. I almost cried because tradition is something I love, and change is something I detest.
We chose a 9-10' Noble Fir (a first for us) for $84.50. For a tree that we will toss out to the curb for the boy scouts to pick up the week after christmas. What a waste. The fake tree route 9with lights already placed in abundance on each branch) is looking better and better.
Getting the tree up is another blog altogether.
Happy Holiday, peops!
1 comment:
We ended up with a pre-cut tree last year. We did attempt to cut our own down, but Mike had just had carpal tunnel surgery and I was 7 months pregnant. If that alone wasn't enough it was incredibly awful weather the day we went and it didn't seem fair to drag a 3 year old through the bush looking for the perfect tree. We ended up with a short long needled tree, the exact opposite of what we always get a tall short needled tree.
We too have looked at the pre-lit fake ones, but can't pull the trigger on one either.
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