Christmas Tree non-Adventures of 2010

I am a person who likes certain traditions, and if some of those traditions get disrupted, I have a hard time working through the change.  One of the traditions I cherish is going out on what I call our Christmas tree searching adventure.  Usually, our whole family goes out to the woods, the real woods, not a tree lot, in layers of winter clothes and boots for our adventure.  My parents, my sister's family, and many times my cousin, all find their tree within a short time.  My husband would find ours in a much shorter time, if it was just him picking out the tree.  Many times he will point a tree out to me, but I want to keep looking, so we search and search, tromping through the woods, in search of the 'just right' tree.  My parents, my cousin, and my sister and her family usually join in pointing out pretty trees to me, but I keep looking.  Often, we end up back at the tree my hubby pointed out an hour or two earlier, but I enjoy making tree getting an adventure.  


Snow started to fall here about ten days ago, and not just light accumulations, either.  We have two feet of snow in our yard, down on the flat prairie.  We usually go on our tree getting adventure a day or two after Thanksgiving, up north where the rest of the family lives.  Well, on Thanksgiving the snow started, again, and it kept going and going and going.  It wasn't looking like we were going to make it up north to go out with family for our tree.  My hubby and I decided to try to find one in our area, despite the snow.  We found one area we could get up in the woods, at least a little bit.  We were passing trees, but none were Christmas tree type trees.  Many were mature cedars and they were beautifully flocked with fresh snow.  As we were driving up the road, we were getting in deeper and deeper snow, and the fresh tracks that had been broken in the snow had ended about half a mile back.  We finally got to an area we could turn around.  We opened our doors, thinking since we were there, we could get out and look around.  The snow was at door level, and as we looked at the road, we could see we were high centered on the snow.  We both looked at each other, but I was determined to find a tree so I got out my snowshoes and a started to prepare for a trek for at least a little bit in search of a tree.  The snow had briefly stopped at this point.  However, just as I was strapping on the first snowshoe, the wind started to howl through the trees, and the snow was coming down sideways.  Not wanting to get stranded way up in the mountains, we decided to head back down.  The weather had changed dramatically in twenty minutes, again.  Down the road a bit, it was a freezing rain mix, with heavy fog.  Another truck had slid off the road, almost into a creek, but someone else was able to pull him out on the sheet of ice road we were now traveling on.  I looked at my hubby, and we looked at the clock, and were amazed how fast things changed.  We continued to look for a tree on the way out, but the only ones that could even be considered for a Christmas tree were on private property.  


  The snow just kept falling, and falling.  We looked in a few low areas that are not private, but we could not find anything.  I was getting really sad.  We went by a tree lot, looked at their prices, and decided not to go that route!


We did end up getting a tree by the end of the day, at least I guess that's what you call it.  It's been sitting in front of me since late Sunday night, but I have yet to put an ornament on it.  I think only about 1/4 of our ornaments will even fit on this tree.  It's a 7 1/2 foot tree, but doesn't have those natural gaps like I'm used to, where I can hang my longer ornaments.  Ornaments are another tradition that I cherish.  My parents have given us ornaments every year since we were born. My Gram gave them to us every year, too, so when I left my parents home, I had at least 40 ornaments.  Once my hubby joined the family, he got them, too.  My sis started to give ornaments every year, as well.  We have a lot of ornaments, all with meaning and memories attached to them.  


Back to the tree....see I like trees made naturally by God, not trees that come in a box, made in China.  Because of deep snow, we ended up with the latter.  I still cannot embrace it.  I've had friends say to just go buy pine scented candles, or tree oil.  But it's not about the scent.  It's about the tradition, the experience, the memories created with family as we search for a tree and everyone lovingly joking with me while I search for the 'perfect' tree for us, and about the jokes as we bring it home and realize it's much bigger than we thought it was and how are we going to get it in the door???  The box tree is pretty, yes.  But it doesn't have the experience, the funny stories, the love tied to it.  So, for this year, I guess I just have move past the box, and try to be thankful for what we do have.  Maybe I can make up for the lack of tree by decorating the outside of the house in lights.  Watch out neighbors, it may look like Chevy Chase's house off Christmas Vacation here soon!