O Tannenbaum

Today seemed a good one to put up, or should I say unfold, the Christmas tree. Boy, do I miss Ned!

For the past several years Ned has been going to a tree farm near Mosinee and cutting our tree. He always picks perfectly sized little beauties for us. He (and Evan or Karl or Paul or any combination thereof) then brings in the tree right around Kit's birthday. There are usually some debates over who gets to add the lights. The loser wraps them on after carefully testing each strand only to find that at least one set of lights will not work. Grumbling and worse follows and is usually rectified by a quick trip to a store (remember that the closest one is 20 miles away) to buy one or more of the last sets of out-of-fashion lights since it is now too close to Christmas to find any decent selection on the shelves. This tradition is right up there with brandy in my egg nog. It just wouldn't be Christmas without it.

Why should things be any different in Alyssa's apartment? We bought a little 4-foot "potted" artificial tree at 60% off last weekend. She was certainly right about finding drastic cuts on holiday decor at JoAnn's. Such a deal. I opened the box to find 2 sections of papery-plastic-y branches. One fit into the other and then into the lovely pot provided. Sliding that top section into the base brought back memories of the nice artificial tree we had when the kids were young. It, too, was in 2 sections. We wired the top section to the frame of the living room windows to prevent the tip overs experienced in prior years. We did not, however, account for the cat running up the tree. She knocked the bottom section out and the top of the tree was left swinging from the window frame like a pendulum. But that was years ago and this little gem will stand in a cat-free environment.

It actually looked pretty cute in the store: a compact little piece of artificial greenery complete with artificial pine cones and clusters of artificial berries prelit for our holiday enjoyment. Yup, this tree is making it feel more like home here already. Especially since one section of lights does not work.

Ho, Ho, Ho.