....how lovely are thy branches?
This song ran through my mind when David decided to start a new "tradition" this year and this is what he came back with:
That's right. No more fake tree for us, David is now going to go up into the wilderness and cut us down a tree that we will proudly display in our living room...no matter how it looks.
The night started with us going down to his parent's house in Woodland Hills for dinner and family home evening. Then as we waited excitedly, David and his dad went and "found" our Christmas tree, loaded it back in the truck and brought it home. To my dismay, it was not quite what I pictured.
After I came back into the house with a horrified gaze, my sister-in-law simply remarked "Yea, good luck with that."
I tried to put on a brave face and tell David I was proud of him, then planned on dumping the tree at the nearest spot we could on the way home. Sorry greenies, I know we had stolen the life of a young tree only to further disrespect it by trashing it within an hour but I was NOT putting this tree in my living room. Sure, our fake tree was hell to put up and every year we bemoaned its existence and swore we would get a new one, but I had to draw the line somewhere.
See this is our fake tree (picture taken last year over our banister on Christmas Eve before the kids woke up)
Huge and lustrous, David and I bought this monster our first year of marriage. We spent a fortune on the dang thing and it wasn't even pre-lit. Being naive and caught up with the Christmas spirit, we had no idea that putting this beauty together branch by branch every year, and twisting and tangling lights on all 9 feet of it would be our worst Christmas nightmare. About two years ago I stopped taking the lights off of it thinking that would be the solution, but we all know how reliable Christmas light strands are, and true to form many would fail me and I believe this thing had close to 30 strands of 100 lights on it there last year. It killed me. I have even been known to pay family members to tackle the project for me to preseve my Christmas spirit.
Thus, the new "tradition" was born. As you can see from the top picture the youngling tree made it home and into our living room. I let it sit there for a few days hoping to convince David that it was hopeless. But his mom came over a couple of times saying how she thought it was going to be perfect and how David and his dad had "bonded" over the experience...la, la, la.
So I gave up and decorated it.
Real trees should come with a warning that says: IF YOU TRY TO PUT LIGHT STRANDS ON US EXPECT THAT SMALL BABY SPIDERS WILL JUMP OUT AT YOU MANY TIMES AND BRING YOU TO TEARS BEFORE YOUR HUSBAND GETS THE BRIGHT IDEA TO DOUSE US WITH BUG SPRAY.
But, here it is in all its glory (I decided to move it to the other side of the room seeing how a real tree by a fireplace didn't seem safe to me):
It didn't turn out half bad, so I guess I will stop comparing it to "the tree from Whoville" or the "even more pathetic cousin" of Charlie Brown's Christmas tree. Even though this next picture is a little blurry, a shot sans the flash gives you a much better idea of the actual ambiance of the tree.
It stands probably 13-15 feet tall and its branches are already sagging heavily from the weight of the lights and decorations.
Sigh
"O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum,
wie treu sind deine Blätter!"
...Okay you get the picture
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree
Posted by Stacy at 9:32 PM
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9 comments:
Oh get over yourself. I think the tree is really cool, and thanks for mentioning me...uh never. Considering I'm the one that slaved over your former tree year after year and was only compensated ONE of those years, mind you. AND I helped decorate the who-ville tree as well. So, you're welcome...and bah humbug to you!
I think YOU getting over YOURself, would be a more appropriate phrase. You helped me like two years (one of which I paid you) because then you were always "too busy" with your "life". I mention you in nearly every post I do, people are growing tired of it. I do appreciate your help this year and I thank you for it (and already have), but it was not with the lights which is the most difficult part so bah humbug right back at you!
I LOVE it! Maybe one day we will start that tradition but for now we have a 30 dollar fake tree sitting in our living room too :)
Ah, sisterly love.
I thought about going the real tree way again, but I am not sure where it is safe to cut trees down? I thought about the Adams' yard, but they might object.
So for now, we are all about faking it.
I like your skinny tree though, it does have character.
Your tree is beautiful! I loved it when I saw the first picture of it before reading how sad you were about it. I can see how it would be a bit saddening compared to the other tree. But without the other tree yours looks awesome! I love the skinny tree. They are "in" you know. Or maybe that was last year. I don't know, but we have skinny one too. I would totally do a real tree if it didn't have bugs, shed or smell like a real tree and then try to fight Plato off of it cause you know he'd pee on it. LOL Love, Linda - winegarfamily.com
I think it's fantastic. Beats ours...we don't have one. Aaron's never said yes to my many requests for a tree, and this year, with an 11 month old, I decided it probably wasn't worth it. We put one of those little fake trees on our porch outside...
Look at you...Miss tree decorator/Domestic Goddess. And Look at Dave, macho man who cuts his own Christmas trees! I soooo need to settle down! :)
I think it looks very pretty, in the final decorated stage. I'm not a fan of the real tree, too messy with the pine needles everywhere and that sticky sap, but I have to admit, they look (and smell) really nice.
Oh Stacey, you make a me laugh. Brian and I went and did the whole cutting your tree when I was pregnant with Ty.... bad Idea. Now we still get a real one, but buy it from the lots so that I can have a "perfect" one... and even those aren't always so perfect :) PS You are looking marvilous!
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