I'm a proud owner of a Christmas tree. The in-laws left today, guilty sigh of relief there, but before they took off I grabbed my mother-in-law and hauled her off to a Christmas tree farm. It was the first time I've ever cut down a Christmas tree on my own. The owner gave me a very large sickle-like saw and told me to pick one.
There was a light smattering of snow on all the trees and just enough snow on the ground to cover up the earth and make it a white wonderland.
We managed to get the car in my Honda Civic with the help of the farm owner (wrapping a tree in a blanket works miracles) and my mother-in-law and I managed to haul the thing up 4 flights of stairs on our own (my husband was working). Now I've strung the lights, both white lights and chili pepper lights, and I'm waiting for Gerd so I can start hanging all the ornaments.
Normally I'd have multicolored lights (somehow I've always associated pure white lights with snobbery) but it's a tradition in the Ertzgebirge region (where my in-laws come from) to have pure white trees in each house. We compromised and included something from my childhood region...red chili lights.
It's beginning to look a bit like Christmas, and that makes leaving Tucson feel okay again. Life is good.
2 comments:
Sounds like fun. I've never cut my own Christmas tree. 'Course, there's the little problem of month-long allergies if I have a live tree in the house. We "cut" our tree out of the basement storage area every year...
Wait, I have cut down an evergreen. It was a weed in one of my flower beds that hit about 6 foot tall over 2 years (probably more bush than actual tree, and it might have been 3 years before I got annoyed with it crowding out the flowers...), and I spent a couple of hours with a hand saw and a shovel trying to remove it. In pieces :) And I had to shower afterwards to wash off all the oil/pollen/whatever it is that caused my hives. It did smell nice coming down, though.
Happy decorating! The kids and I are getting anxious to put up our own tree. But we have to actually be home for a few hours at a stretch to make that happen!
Spruce trees appear to be one of a handfull of green things I don't appear to be allergic to. I get needles all over the place and swear, every year, that I'll just get a fake one next year, but I never do. I really do like the real ones, even if they are a pain.
This year we ended up with a very different smell. When we got the tree in the car I realized the scent wasn't just tree. Either the neighborhood cats or farm dog had decided to make their territory (Seems to me like they knew a good tree when they saw it). Fortunately a few hours on the deck and a few pieces of burnt incense and we were back in order again.
We cut up last year's tree after Christmas and made it into firewood/fire starter. We're ALMOST through last year's supply. I'm hoping it's all gone before we cut this one up. There's only so much room for a supply of fir needles in a city apartment!
Post a Comment