Now, in years past, we had only one tree, even when we spent Christmas here. The upper living room has a really high ceiling, so we could get one of those really tall trees on Christmas Eve for a discounted price and leave it up until the end of January. And we were so excited to do that this year (just the tall tree part, not the January part)! And every year! So one of the first things I got rid of when we moved was the stand for the short to normal Christmas trees.
But then this whole Cub Scout fundraiser happened. We needed to fundraise to pay for renting a lodge in the mountains for Snow Camp. At first, the trees were supposed to be 6ft Doug Firs donated to the Scouts and we were going to sell them for $15. Then the price was $5 and then $10, so we had to raise our price to $25. Which was pretty good for a Christmas tree I guess. But then the trees were only five feet tall. And there were two other tree lots set up across the street from the Scout lot. They had better trees and better prices. So the Scouts were only able to sell 27 of the 100 trees to people, mostly Scout families, even after the price was dropped to $20. And that was just breaking even.
So we decided that we would buy two trees this year. A short Scout tree for the kids in the lower living room and a TALL tree from one of the other lots for the upper living room. Saturday, M, IJ, and S stood out in the cold for three hours and didn't sell a single tree! And on Sunday when we went to go buy our big tree, M was...bothered by the fact that we were going to spend our money at the stands that are competing with our Scouts while two boys stood shivering by the side of the highway.
So we got two short trees. And you know what? Its okay. Because we never remember exactly what the tree looks like year after year. Only that it smelled good. And we usually got one that was too big and fat! 2002 and toddler IJ:
And it looked pretty with all the lights on. And one year our tree fell down! 2003 and IJ again:
And that A used to grump around the tree farm, especially when we video taped. But we would make her go with us every year. One year we went to our favorite pumpkin patch to cut down a tree and S ran away and A had to chase after him because I was holding E who was only a few weeks old. 2005, A and S:
When E was a toddler, we figured out how to protect the tree from the dog, the kids, and save money! Short tree and baby gate to the rescue! 2006:
And last year M was able to pick out our tree and cut it down before I got F's diaper changed in the van! And our first year together as one family, we got our first live tree after years of M using a fake tree. We bought it at Home Depot and tied it to the top of M's tiny Ford Festiva. I wasn't sure if we were going to make it home that year.So this year will be the year that we bought two short trees to support the Scouts. And the year I had to buy a new tree stand, exactly like the one I dropped off at Goodwill a five months ago. One tree is on a table so it fills the ceiling space better:
And one tree is downstairs for the kids: S is demonstrating how short the tree is.
Thanks for walking down Memory Lane with me!
