O Christmas Tree

This year marks our fourth Christmas together. It's always interesting to see how family traditions shake out when you get married. Not just who you spend the day with, but also the little things -- open presents on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day? Big breakfast or big dinner? Wait your turn, or rip through everything in less than 5 minutes?

Thankfully, we didn't have to deal with one issue -- whether the tree should be real or artificial. We are both real tree people. We have nothing against artifical trees; it just wasn't our preference. And each year, the procuring of the Christmas tree has been a fun adventure. We would drive out to the Christmas tree farm, trudge through the fields to find the perfect (least crappy) one, cut it down, and then bring it back home, where we would lose half the needles as we dragged it in the door and the other half when Franklin figured out there were bugs in the tree. Ah, good times.

Last year, though, we decided to skip the tree farm and go to Lowe's, since John was only 8 months old -- too young to help cut down the tree. The entire process took less time than the drive to the tree farm. Our tree was green and fragrant, and lived through Christmas.

But this year, we won't be home on Christmas, and when we get home from our trip, we know we don't want to deal with a droopy, dying tree that may or may not have any needles or ornaments left on it, depending on how much the animals resent us leaving them.

Tommy declared that skipping the tree was not an option. Yes, Tommy. No, I'm not kidding.

So we decided to get a fake tree. Actually, we decided to get a temporary tree -- we hope to score one of those awesome after-Christmas deals on the fake tree of our dreams, but until then, I found a tree on Craigslist. I'm only slightly better on Craigslist than I am on EBay. This should give you some idea as to how this is going to turn out.

I didn't ask for a perfect tree, just one that would hold up a few ornaments for a week or two. So I made arrangements with the guy. We drove to his house. We paid a whopping $20 for the tree, a clump of which fell apart when we put it in our trunk.

I have since discovered, as the pathetic "tree" lays there unassembled in my living room, that you need a special fake tree stand. Fake tree stands that -- if you can find one that is not already attached to someone else's tree -- happen to cost more than the tree itself, which just annoys me on principle. Most fake trees come with this. $20 worth of garland on a stick does not. (Insert your favorite "you get what you pay for" story here.)

If you have any suggestions, please let me know. In the meantime, check out Dash & Shae's pictures of their trip to cut down their first Christmas tree together...