As a kid, we always had a real Christmas tree. We would get a permit from the BLM, pack up warm winter clothes, a saw, some donuts and hot chocolate and head out. Sometimes, we drove for what seemed like a long time. I remember once we drove out to Nevada, but most of the time we went to Utah's west desert by Delta.
Maps from BLM land are not good but we always managed to find our way and almost always found a beautiful tree. When you are out in the wild, trees look a lot thinner and shorter than they are in real life.
One year, that stands out in my mind, is when I was in high school. We went out and tromped around looking for a tree. After a while we found this beautiful, full tree. My dad looked at it and said, "It's too tall!"
He said that every year.
We assured him that it wasn't and talked him into cutting it down. We dragged it back to the SUV and tied it on top. We enjoyed some hot chocolate and some donuts. Then, we drove home. We got home and unloaded.
My parents live in a split level house and the tree goes in the upstairs living room. We always took it up the back steps, through the sliding glass doors, through the kitchen and into the living room.
My dad took the tree to the back yard and cut off a few of the lower branches so that it would fit in the tree stand and hauled it up the stairs. When it got it there it was so huge that it wouldn't fit. It was wider than both panes of the sliding glass door and taller than door by about three feet.
We laughed. I'm sure my dad groaned. He dragged it back down the stairs and sawed a few more branches off. It still wouldn't fit. I think he ended up having to cut some off the top and the bottom.
When it would finally fit through the door, it was the saddest looking Christmas tree in the world. It had so many holes and was so misshapen. We decorated it anyway, and although it was pretty pitiful, it was beautiful in it's own right.
This is a story that we laugh about every year. It brings back such good memories for my family.
Coming up... Tree hunting as a newlywed...
6 comments:
That sounds like so much fun! We never did a real tree, except for the first year my hubby an dI were married We were living with my mom and brother and the tree we had was pretty pathetic, so my mom and borther went out and got a real one. I still remember that tree, it was beautiful!
Too funny. Your poor dad.
We went and cut down our tree a few times when I was real young but the memories are very vague at this point. I wanted to get a real one this year but we will be out of town for half the month so just put our little fake one up.
i love that story! i can see why it sticks out in your mind! it is a great memory to have! we missed cutting our tree down this year! we went to wal-mart and picked ours! fun, i know!
Those are the memories that make great holidays.
It's stories just like this that remind me of Elder Wirthlin's talk "come what may" in the last conference. These are the times that we remember the most.
That is hilarious and a classic Christmas story. Can't you just see it in a movie?
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