O Christmas Tree

It all started with my dad. One year he decided that the artifical tree needed a triming. Bad move Dad. It was a Charlie Brown tree before, I'm at a loss for words to accurately describe it after the chainsaw. Tighly woven bright tacky garland sufficated any hope the little wooden pole had left and yet it was still a Merry Christmas.

Did I ever tell you about the time my dad lit his coat on fire during candle light service? I loved that guy, entirely different story...

It must have all started there. My longing for the perfect tree.

The year my dad was sick and he knew that it was probably his last Christmas with us, he gave my sister and I the go ahead to get a REAL Christmas tree. It was beautiful yet overshadowed by a really tough Christmas.

Our first Christmas as newlyweds, we headed out to find the PERFECT tree. From tree farm to tree farm. Bouncing down gravel roads in our first truck, expecting our first baby, and looking for our first perfect tree. We did eventually settle..

Then there was the Christmas that we just didn't have time for the tree farm and the Wagoneer trip out. I was pregnant with number four. Josh picked up a tree from some very innocent nice men in the nice little fence. Little did they know he'd bring it back the next morning. I'm not sure of their return policy, but Josh must have been convincing with his story of his pregnant wife laying facedown sobbing over broken ornaments and lost memories, I wasn't allowing him back until he brought that thing back where it came from. They gave him a nice new tree with a straight stem. Poor Josh.

After that, for a few years, we roadtriped gravel roads and cut down little ditch trees. They were all individuals.

Random, but here's a shot of the crew this morning. Christmas card shots are SO hard with multiple kids. Can you tell that Ailah's pulling Maja's hair.. Another post..

Back to trees, two years ago, we caved and decided to buy our very first artifical tree. It didn't leave water stains on our floor. It was nice. But then, the house flooded and along with it half of the tree. Don't ask how half.

But half didn't get us very far. So last year, it was back to a ditch tree. A bush tree that was wired to the ceiling with fishing string. Josh wasn't taking any chances. ((and we were all in winter coats & it was snowing.. today was a t-shirt...))

Which brings us to Arkansas. And frankly, I wasn't sure about driving on unknown roads and digging around in the brush here. So we did the unthinkable. We went to Walmart.

And there we have it. Our Wal-Mart tree in a Wal-Mart stand. Filled with half broken ornaments and crazy memories, it's about perfect. :)