Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

On the subject of Christmas Trees I will say there is only one way to go: REAL. I know people like the no maintenance pre-lite trees, but for me it doesn't feel like Christmas. If you're going to go fake, go all out - make it a pink or silver Aluminum tinsel tree. Go completely retro, but if you're not going to visit the 1950's go traditional and go real!

Mad Dog grew up with a real tree in his family's house, but was only subjected to a fake one when he married his first wife (I'm not even going to make comment on this - we all can think of a million things wrong with Mad Dog's first wife). When I was a kid we did have a fake tree. When I say fake it was fake. The look, the feel, everything about it was fake. As we got older, my Dad and Mom started buying real trees. That tradition still lives in my Mother's house. Both households do something similar, we both buy smaller trees and place them up a little higher so they look like full trees. My mom uses a side table in her living room to lift the tree up to the level with her bay window, where ours sits on a old steamer trunk of Mad Dog's in our living room. My Mom started this new tree purchasing technique because she felt she didn't need a huge one in our house anymore. With no kids and very little visitors the tree was for her and my grandmother (and now Stuart) and they didn't need anything huge (unless Kevin helped pick it out). Mad Dog and I went this way when we had Lex. It meant we did not have to defend the trees from little hands and it also keeps the cat out of trouble.

Each year since moving to Worcester we purchase our tree from the same lot on Park Street. We found them our first year when Lex was still in his infant car seat. At first we were unsure of this odd lot, with its trailer and generate run lights (it looked a little shady to say the least), but now we wouldn't even think about going anywhere else. In fact when the lot looked like it was being developed in early November we got worried we wouldn't be able to find our tree guys this year. The guys who run the lot are friendly, helpful and extremely reasonably priced. Each year we go, we select our trees for the year, they kindly saw off the end for us and tie it to the car roof (VERY securely).

This year we went for our tree on a Friday night. Mad Dog picked me up after work and a long day of shopping for Lego. We ran several errands on our way home while the kids slept in the car. I got to hit Jo Ann Fabrics, McDonald's (for something to drink), Target and Michael's without them even knowing. The last stop was our tree. The kids woke up as we pulled into the lot. We pulled them out of the car, still half asleep. Loki held Mad Dog's hand as we walked through the trees. She was shivering even with her hat and coat on. Lex wondered with me, wiping the sleep from his eyes. We picked our tree rather quickly after 2 or 3 miss picks. Mad Dog paid the guys and I put cold little Loki in the car with Lex's help. With the kids secure in their car seats the guys tied the tree to the roof of the car. When we got home Mad Dog got the tree stand and we set the tree in place.

Today I will hang the lights (multi-color for the kids). Tomorrow morning we'll decorate. Hmmm... guess I better finish the garland I've been working on. For now we have our "Naked Tree" which smells wonderful and I've only had to sweep up a few pine needles from. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here.  The kids are excited as they should be. Now if I could only get some more of my projects done.