Christmas Tree 2008

This year Christmas comes between the unexpected funeral of my sister-in-law, Nancy, and my pilgrimage to India. Top that with all the snow we have been having recently, 12 inches today, and we almost did not have a Christmas tree this year. With the cost of real trees, which I always insist on, being so high and our lives being so busy, this year my wife suggested we go without a tree.

I was starting to agree with her when I went to a home-builders’ store the other day. On the door a sign said there was 50% off of all real trees and wreaths. I went out to the garden center in the store to see what they had. I did not see any trees and was ready to leave when I saw a small Scotch Pine in the corner of the bin. It had a net around it and thus was very thin. I could see why many had rejected it. Besides being small the bottom of the trunk was twisted.

There was no price on it so I asked the store clerk in the garden center how much this tree was. She took the tag off the tree and went to her desk to scan it. She said it was $8. Since a regular tree is about $80 I purchased it. I thought it was better than no tree. It sat in the garage and the basement for a few days before we tried to put it up. It would not work with our tree stand so I purchased another one at the drug store. I set it up in the living room.

My wife, Pat, had the day off today, and with a very little help from me, she decorated the tree. We used only one strand of the three or four stands of light and only a fraction of the homemade ornaments that we have collected over the years.

Today my friends Jim and Nancy Forest from Holland sent us a Christmas Letter with a story about their tree. The email included pictures of their tree, an artificial one, something Nancy had dreaded but was made necessary. However their tree was beautiful as is our small tree, rejected by many, but standing tall in our living room.

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