Tree Picking!

Please go re-read last years Tree Picking Poem. It's the reason this post is a little tardy. I just couldn't think of anything as cute to say this round. It was a completely new experience this year. I found a $2 off coupon for a tree lot we'd never been to. The prices they were advertising sound reasonable and the trees were available starting the Saturday before Thanksgiving.

We picked up Riley from Pajama Day at school and headed off to get a tree. Traditionally we get the tree in my station wagon, but it's been broken in the driveway for months. My attitude about the whole thing was "Yay, trying something new!" and as always Mike's was "We'll see about this." As we were making our way through the early evening traffic we realized we'd have to get a tree on or in Mike's smaller car and then travel a farther distance through heavier traffic to get home. It was starting to seem like one of those "sounded good on paper" ideas. Then we arrived in a less than inviting neighborhood and pulled into the nearly deserted parking lot.

We could see the sign with prices on it from the car and they we MUCH higher than the ad promised. Mike started fuming and my suggestion to get out and look around since we were already there made it worse. We left and headed for Home Depot's tree tent. Later in the week when Mike and I were watching A Christmas Story he said the haggling with the salesman at the tree lot scene was what he imagined that place would have been like.

We've been getting the tree Thanksgiving week since the first time we hosted. We've had a dead dried up trees by Christmas at least once, but I think we've figured out a few things. We refused any tree prep at the tent in favor of Mike cutting the trunk at home so we knew it had been done properly and saved until right before it went into water. Mike also treated the tree with a plant hormone that makes it thirsty. We got a nice new tree stand and I put "Water the Tree" on Isaac's list as a daily chore.

Once we picked our 6-7ft Fraser Fir Mike insisted we didn't have them cut the ties on it so we could look at it. We could tell it was reasonably full and very green. Mike said "It had a good trunk." So, we put the seat down and shoved the tree in to Mike's car. He drove with the top of the tree over his shoulder the five minute ride home. As you can see, he stood the tree in it's spot and Riley helped him release it from all the bindings. It was very full when it opened. I just kept laughing and saying "Little full, little sap."

Now Mike will put the lights on (white lights tight through the middle and colored lights on the outside) and we'll enjoy it for a few days before we cover it with ornaments.