"Oh Christmas Tree..."

This week is dedicated to Christmas trees.  We have certainly had our ups and downs with them.  "Doc" and I both love the scent of fresh pine in the house and get real trees every year.  All you conservationists out there are probably going nuts, but listen.  I have learned from living in the woods, that you have to prune trees out on a regular basis to keep the forest healthy.  I am convinced that this is what happens with tree farms.  This is their livelihood.  They want the trees to go on and on for many years.  Besides Mr. Conservationist, how much bad stuff goes into fake trees, and what happens to the materials when they get thrown out. 

Now, for a few years we tried to bring in "balled" trees so we could plant them outside after Christmas.  There are a couple of inherent problems with those.  First, they can only be inside for a relatively short period of time.  I believe it is ten days.  It is impressive how quickly those trees get acclimated to indoor weather.  It reminds me of our dog Chester who has spent all eleven years of his life outside.  This is his first winter inside and we will never get him out of the house again.  In fact, he has taken my place in bed, but that is another story.  Anyway, these trees are incredibly heavy with that large ball of dirt around the roots, so you either have to bring it in with the tractor or a ton of muscle.  Third, is the problem of what to put it in.  We ended up at the local farm store and bought a large metal tub.  A lot of work for ten days and only a couple of our trees survived the transplant to the great outdoors.

So we continue with our live trees.  "Doc" was great with that until I started adding trees to fill the house.  We are up to three now.  Remember though, we have collected 32 years of ornaments plus all of the ornaments that the kids have.  We will cover ornaments later.  We do have an enormous tree in our living room.  They are usually 12 to 15 feet tall or more.  And we do fill them with ornaments.  It is a family project to decorate the tree.  Friends have started to join us just to watch the show. 

The biggest battle every year is getting the lights on.  It is no one's favorite job.  "Doc" is trying to pass the legend on to the boys and they are deliberately sabotaging his efforts.  They do such an awful job, that I usually get angry and start taking them off and replacing them.  Seriously though, who puts on a whole string of lights without checking them.  The condition of the lights will be covered later this week too.  But anyway, all the trees are up this year and another set of memories has been added to the collection.  More later.....