O Christmas Tree

Call me old fashioned but I'm kind of a stickler about Advent. Perhaps my feelings come in response to twelve years in retail management. Whatever the reason, I like Advent to be Advent and Christmas to be Christmas. I don't listen to carols until they become impossible to avoid. I like to get a tree as late as possible; I keep it up through Epiphany.

You'd think in a place as populated with trees as the UP, that a Christmas tree would not be so hard to find. Mom (aka Barbara) arrived yesterday, and I told her that I'd have a tree when she got here, so that we could decorate it together. I'm not picky. I really wanted a little tree, not necessarily dense, but approximating symmetrical. Most of its needles still in situ would be good, too. Could I find a tree that came even close to that description? NO. All the trees I saw were either ugly and pathetic or enormous, or in one sad case, both.

In fact, I started to panic. I'm working most of the next two days, what if I never found a tree? I really wanted a tree. Here. In my own living room.

Tonight, I had a meeting in Ishpeming - roughly 100 miles away. I remembered seeing some trees and a trailer in the IGA parking lot in Ishpeming, so I left early, determined to come home with a tree. Well, most of the trees were monsters - six or seven feet tall, big burly trees. Just as I was about to despair, I rounded a corner and there she was. MY TREE. She's a wee tiny thing - shorter than I am by a number of inches. My guess is that she's about 4'10" tall. She's kind of round, but not in an unseemly way. And, she fit in the back of Maggie, so that she did not have to drive home on the roof. She's shed some needles in the back of the car, so I'm not sure how healthy she is - but she's mine.

I've rearranged the furniture in the living room, so that she sits right in front of the big picture window. She's in her stand, and I hope she's sucking down water like there's no tomorrow.

She won't get lights or decorations for a day or two, but she's mine - all mine. And, one night this week, after all her lights are on, I'll keep her lit all night, and I'll sleep on the couch to keep her company. It's tradition.