Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree...

It's that time of year again ... when we head out into the Winter Wonderland to pick out the majestic symbol of Christmas ... the tree!! We started our adventure by driving around and just "peaking" at the lots of trees. The last time we got a tree in Montana, Dan made it easy and he just went to Albertson's and got one. Wow, I can't believe how many tree lots there are in this valley.

In an attempt to save time and running around, we go to talk to the guy who's in charge of the Kiwanis's tree lot in the Wal-mart parking lot (since we were there to do some shopping anyway). He proceeds to tells us that the trees are frozen (no kidding, it's only been below zero for a week!) but they should "open up" when they thaw. His selection in our price range looked worse than a Charlie Brown Christmas tree. Of course for anywhere from $55 on up we could get a "plantation tree" which has been groomed with a perfect silhouette. Uh, no thanks.
Then I remember that I saw some trees in the parking lot of my office, so we head that direction. They had a great selection and now we had to choose the "perfect" one. Needless to say, sometimes we have difficulty making decisions, so I'm 'sneekee' enough that I tell Dan, "you go ahead and pick one out and I'll go in and pay." So I go in, see a bin with books (2 Baby Einstein books caught my eye), so I rummage through them and then pay. As I'm walking out I see Dan trying to load the tree into the truck by himself .... and just as he's lifting it up, the top snaps off! "Oh NO" ... our perfect tree is not so perfect. So we unload the tree and back to the selection process. After finally finding the "second best," we get it loaded and away we go ... sappy fingers and all!!

The next morning Dan and I bundle up and get ready to bring in our tree...what a magical moment! As Dan's tightening up the tree in the stand, I say to him, "I heard that you should cut about 1" off the bottom of the tree to give it a fresh stem." Yep.....down came the tree, out comes the saw and off comes 1" of the tree trunk.

At this point the tree isn't looking too hot, in fact, we're wondering if it will open up before 2010? But we fill 'er up with water and wait .... and wait ... and wait. Dan had to go to work that night, so he went to lie down for a bit and I left with Kailer to go to my office and do some work.

By the time I got home and Dan got up, our tree was "coming to life." It was time to decorate!

Kailer laid on the floor while I trimmed the tree .... he was interested in what I was doing, at first, but soon lost interest and went back to playing with his toys.

So here's our beautiful Christmas tree (they always look so much prettier in the dark when the "little lights are twinkling") ... dedicated to Kailer and his 1st Christmas!

Kailer in his "Cousin Eddie" hat - ready to pick out a tree!