Christmas' Past and Christmas Present

I had just mentioned to Jordan on Thanksgiving day how we used to always get a real tree the day after Thanksgiving...she doesn't really remember that, for several years now we've had an artificial one.  It was partly for convenience and partly for money savings that we made the switch. Reading another mom's blog about that same thing made me take a trip down memory lane into Christmas' Past....

In the early years of our marriage (December 3rd was our 21st anniversary!) we had some pitiful, real Christmas trees.  I remember one particular real "Charlie Brown Christmas Tree".  We had gone to a relative of Julian's and cut down a cedar tree.  The limbs were so weak they could barely hold up the ornaments, they were all weighted down.  To top it all off we had a cat that would try to play with the ornaments and the flimsy tree stand we had at the time...many times we came home from work with the tree lying on the floor where the cat had pulled it over. The next year we got a little smarter and found a tree stand with a much wider base, it held a lot more water.  We didn't realize if we filled it up all the way the water would get stale and were wondering, "What IS that smell...Oh!!"

 I remember we lived in a little one bedroom apartment then...Julian going to college (mornings) and working full time.  He worked at the airport from some time in the afternoon till 11 or 12.  A lot of nights I would take supper to him and to get a chance to see him, as I worked during the day.  It was during this time of him being gone so much between school and work that I wanted a dog for companionship.  When he didn't want one, I said, "A dog or a baby!".  We got a puppy, toy poodle!

After the poor college days, we were able to afford nicer, real fir trees and loved going to choose the perfect one.  We started out getting them at a tree farm, then later years started getting them from different charitable organizations around here that always sold them.  At some point it began to seem like more work than fun, getting rid of the tree after Christmas, and the clean up of needles.  The year we purchased our artificial tree Jay was out of work and it seemed practical to get a tree that could be reused and they were on sale.  We bought a prelit tree, problem with that is I could only find one prelit with white lights and the kids loved colored lights.  We add colored lights to the already white lit tree.  A bit redneck?

Since none of the kids can remember the tree shopping from years past, I am feeling compelled to consider a real tree next year.  We'll see.....