I Picked a Good One.

So basically I became obsessed with the idea of getting a Christmas tree the minute Thanksgiving was over and done with. I'm usually a little more reasonable, but since we are traveling back home to Clovis for Christmas and I would only be able to enjoy a Christmas tree in my house for a couple of weeks, I was seriously determined to get one asap.

McKay has had finals and major deadlines, but because he loves his wife (and probably more likely because he knew I wouldn't stop talking about it until we got one) he raced home from work on Monday by 3pm and we headed out. In typical Portland fashion, the clouds came in, the sky darkened, and it started raining just as we got on our way to the U-cut tree farm. We decided to keep going. Okay, I decided we should keep going, but McKay is a good sport.

I had my heart set on a specific Christmas farm that a friend had told me about-- hot apple cider, beautiful trees, they even take your picture! Unfortunately, I couldn't remember how to get there. At all. It turns out I had absolutely no idea where we were going. But lucky for us, like a ray of hope, we drove past a little sign of a spray painted Christmas tree with an arrow and decided that would have to do. After a few twists and turns we met up with Old Man Christmas Tree Farm, who was sharpening tools in his barn. He gave us a saw and pointed to his beautiful trees, and kindly let us know that he was closing in an hour.

By this point it was pretty much pitch dark. I was examining trees about 3 inches away from my face, as McKay would randomly select one and say, "Whaddabout this one?" After a hurried effort, we selected a tree and my mountain man of a husband cut down our beautiful tree, while I gave thanks to said tree for sacrificing itself for our holiday celebrations, and assured it that it would die with dignity adorned with shiny ornaments and would be lovingly admired nightly.

After the cutting was complete, and McKay attempted to lift the tree, we realized that the car was about a half mile away, and the tree was a beast to try and lift. The geniuses (I had to have spell check correct that word for me... I think that negates the geniusness) that we are, we decided I should run back and grab the car, while McKay stayed with the tree. After two wrong turns (yeah, that genius thing was definitely an overstatement), I found my husband and our tree. At which time we realized, there was absolutely no way that an 8 foot tree was going to fit into the trunk of our Honda Accord. But here's where we redeem ourselves with the genius thing. Using nothing but Jumper cables and an old sheet, we fit that mother in and drove all the way home with no problems.


The next hurdle was the entry way stairs of our townhouse. Large tree + narrow stairway = hilarious.

And then came--where do we put the tree? This required moving 4 pieces of furniture, two pieces twice, and trying out the tree in several spots, before agreeing upon the right one.

Then, to decorate. Realizing that I did not have enough sparkly things to decorate my tree with, I ran out to Michaels with my 40% off coupon (thanks to dear friend Amy!) and managed to gather an assortment that I felt good about.


Three hours later ( I got a bit distracted with above mentioned friend Amy, she had never experienced 711 hot chocolate, so we had to make a side trip and of course got to talking...) I resumed the decorating responsibilities and McKay and I finished the tree at roughly 1am.

But I do have a point. At the end of the evening I went back and looked at all of the pictures we had taken of our Christmas tree excursion and noticed that in every one, McKay is happily smiling at what some husbands may have deemed a chore.


I'm so glad he loves this stuff as much as I do.