Oh Tannebaum

The saga of this year's Christmas Tree started late. It was December 16 and we still had not gotten a tree, so I asked Boo if he wanted to go out and cut one in the National Forest, he agreed and we set out. After a stop at the Coeur d'Alene Forest Service office for a five dollar permit we took the road up to Fernan Saddle to get us a tree. If you have ever been to North Idaho you know we have a few trees here. The weather was turning nasty with snow falling and the wind blowing - we got up there after kicking in the four wheel drive. Once at the top we started looking for a likely victim, only it was hard because if you stepped off of the snowmobile tracks you sunk to your waist in the deep snow. It had a crust on it so you would break through after a few seconds which made it worse, to walk 50 feet took about 10 minutes. You are supposed to go 200 feet off of the road but since we couldn't actually get that far we looked closer in. The selection was grim, and our standards dropped by the minute. We finally settled for one that looked okay and cut it down. Dragging it out was harder than expected but I made Boo do most of it while I supervised. Once we got to the truck we stood it up and was surprised to see it was about 15 feet tall. I cut off a few feet and threw it in. The dogs didn't like sharing the back of the truck with it but they lived. Once we got home I measured the ceiling where it would go and went out and cut off another few feet and put it in a stand. Hmmm, it looked like crap. I took it in anyway and set it up. Lisa actually cried a little when she saw it and I was preparing to haul it out the door but she said no. We decided it fit this Christmas. She asked if I could put a few more branches in to fill some spots, when I told her I already had she cried again. She tried to put a hand blown glass ornament on it that Boo had made and the branch drooped to the floor. I threw some lights on it, two lightweight strands was all it could handle and washed my hands of the whole business. Lisa set to work on it and using only lightweight ornaments, stuffed animals and who knows what else, she transformed our sorry little tree. That night with the lights on and a glow from the fireplace it was a beautiful tree symbolic of our saga, starting with high hopes, hardened by reality, tempered with conflict and ending with the family finally settling. It was a Christmas Miracle. Hallelujah - I need some eggnog.