Rocking Around the Christmas Tree

This year we have a Noble Fir. Its a big step up in our house from the lowly Douglas Firs of year's past. I have always wanted a Noble Fir but they have always been out of our price range. I guess one good thing about a crappy economy is that the Noble's were deeply discounted at Home Depot. We were tipped off by my brother about the bargain so off we hurried to Home Depot to pick up one of our very own.

This was the kids' first experience in picking out a tree. The first year, they were only three months old and I went from store to store a week before Christmas searching desperately for a tree. There wasn't a tree to be found anywhere. As I headed home with tears in my sleep deprived eyes, I remembered  there was a tree farm out in the country not far from our house. Lucky for me they had a few trees left! Unlucky for me, I only had about $20 in my pocket to spend on a tree and everything left was way out of my price range.  After seeing me completely deflate, the man took pity on me (or wanted to get rid of the last of his trees) and gave me a tree for $20. We put it up and celebrated our first Christmas as a family.

The next year was just sad. We were in the middle of waiting to hear when we would have to move so we just had to sit, wait, and be ready to go at any time. We didn't bother unpacking the Christmas decorations because that would be one more thing to scramble to put in a box once we got notice.  I ended up buying a Charlie Brown Christmas Tree (They sold them at Urban Outfitters and I felt it was truly appropriate given our situation) and put it on our kitchen table for us to all gather around and feel pathetic.

 

This year things were going to be different. We may not have much in our bank accounts but we were going to have a nice Christmas tree! The decorations were up inside the house and the perfect spot for the tree was waiting in the kids play area. We drove up the road to that mega home improvement store we all know so well. Immediately the kids were taken by the spectacle of it all (honestly they were mostly excited about the left over Christmas tree string that was on the floor but they were excited nonetheless).

Poor Paul unwrapped 8 trees and I nixed them all. They just weren't the right tree.

Finally my exacerbated husband told me he would watch the kids and I could find the tree. I perused the stack of trees, found one for Mr. Home Depot to open, and guess what?

That's right baby. The perfect tree on my first try.

While Mr. Home Depot prepared the tree for its new home, Mari checked out all the tree department had to offer (Ben was still fascinated with the string). Soon the tree was on our roof and on its way to its new home.

Its a beautiful tree if I do say so myself.