Prelude to Christmas -- Part 1

The Tree:

Mike and I don't see eye to eye on what kind of Christmas tree we should have.  Every year we debate, and every year I end up giving in because his passion for the "experience, tradition, and real pine smell" is so darn cute.  So we loaded up in the ol' truck and headed up the canyon.  There had been a storm the night before so the snow was deep, but our ford handled that just fine.  It ended up being a very fun trip.  The boys both froze their toes off and spent most of the time in the Truck, but only after valiantly wading through waist-deep (for them) snow fields to find "the one with the light shining on it."  After loosing a dog, hiking a mile or so, shaking snow off of dozens of trees, emptying snow out of boots, we finally found THE ONE.  

 Daniel and Duke came along and found a nice tree as well.  After we had our sappy treasures in the truck we took a few more moments to enjoy the gnarly sledding hill.  I love fluffy snow - crashing is just as fun as sliding.

 Once home Mike's inner child really came out.  We realized that if we didn't trim the tree down it would fit perfectly right under our vault.  So we moved the piano and centered the thing in the only spot it would fit.  Amazingly, once the star was on there is only about a half inch of clearance.

 This year I finally got savvy in the Christmas tree debate.  When I folded and agreed to a live tree I made Mike promise that he would put up the lights.  I hate lighting the tree. Ornaments are so much more fun.  So he borrowed a ladder and made a few trips to ACE for extra strands, but lit the thing up beautifully.  The kids and I made a team effort with the rest of the decor, and voila!  A beautiful tree!  I have to admit, it does beat the fake kind....once all the work is over!

What a nice story, eh?  Well the next day I heard a great crash.  We came into the living room, and the whole tree had gone down.  I am so glad I switched out all my glass ornaments for plastic ones a few years back!  Mike put it back up, reinforced the base with 2x4's and secured it to the wall with fishing twine.  I guess we weren't thinking about our tree stand when we decided on a 15' tree!   Timber!