Oh Christmas Tree!

We went out and purchased a real, live tree today. A couple years back, a garden center opened up just down the road from us. We looked around the past couple of years and they have the best prices, and nicest trees in the area, especially for the 9-10 footers we need to have the tree be proportional to our family room. You can't find them at the big box hardware stores! But besides that, it is owned by a family from Ireland who really believe in customer service. (Not to mention their seriously yummy accents!) It literally took us 20 minutes max to get out of our car, pick a tree, load it up, pay for it, and get back in the car. That was without rushing or in any hurry. They just have such nice trees that we don't have to play the "what holes can we live with?", or "How can we hide that top?" games. The tree we picked out is now standing proud in our family room waiting to be lit and ornamented. (And the animals are eagerly awaiting their turn to play, wait, make that destroy, anything within their paws and mouths reach. Joy.)

Growing up my parents and I always went to a cut-your-own Christmas tree farm. It was out in the more rustic southern part of the county where I grew up and it was owned and run by one of my middle-school cafeteria ladies and her husband, and kids. Unfortunately by the time I was in college her husband was either ill or had passed away, and she wasn't doing so well herself. Once they weren't able to run it, their kids hung on for a couple of years gradually moving to cut trees only at a location in town, and then not having a stand at all. It was always so much fun to go out with my parents in our neighbor's old pickup truck and tromp around in the tree fields looking for the perfect tree for the year. I was sad to hear that the kids had given up the business, but I understood because there is an awful lot of work that needs to be done to keep the trees looking good. A couple years back my parents purchased an artificial tree, which really isn't the same, but makes sense when they travel so much.

I have to say that it still seems a little funny to go look at trees that have been shipped from out of state and are sitting in a bucket (yes, this place re-cuts the trunk and puts them in water when they are on display) instead of going out into the woods(figuratively) to cut one down, but I'm really glad to have had those experiences growing up.