Christmas Leaves Slowly

I cannot stand to see Christmas trees laying empty and dead on the curb.  It bums me out.  Lots of people put out their trees right after the big day or right after New Year.  How can they just put it out there like that?  It was covered in lights and sparkly things for a month and now it's just a fire hazard in the snow and mud.  That's why we hang on to ours until the night before the garbage day that first week of January.  That was last night.

The kiddos came home with big plans for playing Xbox yesterday afternoon.  But our window of time with everybody home, was slim so they had to put that off while we took the tree down.

I'll confess that none of our Christmas traditions are a piece of cake.  We have devised all kinds of ways over the years to complicate the entire process.  For example, we don't just take the ornaments down.  No sir.  After the hooks are removed they all get individually wrapped in paper and then placed in a storage can.  If they are considered extra special, then they go in the can marked "First".  The super duper extra special ones go right on top of the "First" can so they go on tree first.  All of this has been refined over the years so we don't even think about how ridiculous it probably all is.

When we took down my mom's tree on New Year's Day, we got the whole thing done in five commercial breaks during The Twilight Zone marathon.  That included bringing down the boxes from the attic, filling them with everything (including the tree) and returning the boxes.  The sixth break had us rearranging the furniture back.  Then it was time for dessert.

Only the tree is down at this point.  Everything else is tucked hither and tither about the house.  It's going to take a week to herd it all in.  Then the boxes will sit in the upstairs hallway for an overly long period before they finally get hauled up to the attic.

Then it will be time for Easter.

Christmas Tree Day '09

Today is Christmas Tree Day. We are celebrating it one day early this year since the actual date lands on a Saturday and the kids threw a fit. Getting out of school for half a day is a large part of the magic of Christmas Tree Day.


This morning I started thinking about all the past Christmas Tree Days. This will be our seventeenth tree sacrificed to the idea of jolly hollyness. We've had all kinds of weather for this adventure. Warm, shirt sleeve days. Knee-high snow. Sloppy, shoe-sucking mud. Toe numbing cold. And two years ago, we had to drive home in a blizzard. The one thing we didn't have was a camera with us every year. I only remembered to capture the day five times over the years. So I present to you a truncated history of Christmas Tree Day subtitled The Man and his Conquered Foe...

2001

2005

2006

2007
2008

And today.
Let the merry times begin!

Day of the Christmas Tree

Yesterday was the kick off to the Anderson Christmas around here. Yes, it was Christmas Tree Day, otherwise known as our anniversary. Every year we break the the kids out from school and head out to the woods to find the perfect tree.

It was just a tad bit too cold for this trip yesterday, but at least we weren't trudging through knee-deep snow like we have in past years. We trekked all over that tree farm searching. The kids are wise to the slow shutter speed of my camera. Trying to get a picture of them lately is impossible.

The Girl...

The Boy

We were just starting to give up hope. We've been coming to the same tree farm for sixteen years. Every year we wonder if THIS will be the year when we can't find anything. And then every year...

we find it.

The Girl lent a hand by dragging it back to the truck. The tree is so fat this year it kept rolling out of the cart.

To make up for always dodging my camera they finally posed for a shot.

They posed for this one too, but only because I promised I wouldn't put it out for the world to see.


It's hard to make out, but the Girl found the top of a tree on the ground. A perfect tiny tree that she wanted to bring home but then changed her mind.




We got the tree up, put on the lights, angel and garland and then called it a day. Instead of putting on ornaments we settled in and watched two episodes of "Lost". We're watching the entire show from Netflix. Yesterday we started Season 2. Love it! Check out the Boy in this picture trying to get out of the shot!

Here's the tree this morning. It made it through the night without falling down so it's safe to put on ornaments. Marco and the cats are not fond of all this extra stuff in their house. Too much chaos for them.

Happy Anniversary Weaver and Brewer! I hope found a way to make your day special as well!

Christmas Tree Day '07

This was by far the most memorable Christmas Tree Day of the past 15 years, but not in a good way. It started out normal enough; sprung the kids from the clink then drove and drove and drove out to the tree place. We took the truck, because throwing the tree in the back is a load more easy than trying the thing to the roof of the van, but then we had to take the van as well, because only two people can fit in the truck! Oh, well.



It was cold out there this year with a nice covering of snow. We tromped around for awhile. The dangers of being pegged with a snowball were ever constant.

We finally all agreed on a tree and the man cut it down in no time flat.

Another tree conquered!

Now came the ugly part: The drive home. It started on a bad note. Boccardi's was closed. "We're sorry. We are no longer going to open for lunch Mondays through Thursdays". What a load of crap! So now we have to figure out somewhere else for lunch and it's starting to snow. Wait. It's REALLY starting to snow.

People, it was like white-out conditions all the way home! I was a effing wreck by the time we hit our own driveway! There were cars in ditches, cars facing the wrong way, cars sliding out of control everywhere! It was nerve-wracking to say the least! Now the man has been downplaying the whole thing like I'm some kind of hysteric, but it was bad! REALLY BAD!

The tree was all snowy by the time we got it home, which meant it had to come in the house wet and frozen. But after all was said and done, the needles were swept up and the mud and water sponged clean, it ended up being a very lovely tree. I'll take a picture of it tonight when it's all lit up and looking sharp. For what we had to through to get it, it should be the best tree ever!