Our Tree Adventure

I can't believe it's already New Year's Eve! This year seemed to fly by.
I was taking down all of our Christmas decorations today (much to the disappointment of my husband who doesn't want to take down anything until WAY after the new year) and I began to remenisce about this year's "Christmas Tree Adventure". Maybe you would like to hear it!
About six or seven years ago we started the tradition of going to a tree farm with the kids the day after Thanksgiving, picking out a tree and chopping it down. This year was not going to be any different. So we thought!
Our little adventure began as soon as we got the the farm. For the last two years we bought a Canaan Fir - very hardy - but this year they didn't have any over three feet tall. We were looking for something a bit bigger, so we decided to go with the Douglas Fir, also very hardy. We walked through the rows of trees looking carefully at each one. Some were too tall, others not tall enough. Some to fat, some too skinny. We finally narrowed it down to two trees...each on the opposite side of the farm! We must have walked back and forth between the two trees at least four or five times! Some of the kids liked the teardrop shaped tree and some liked the one that was really full. Which one would we get?
Have you ever tried to make a fair decision between two things with eight kids all voting different ways? I think maybe we uncovered some heart issues on this particular day...but that's a different story! Anyway, we decided to flip a coin. The "full" tree wins! Let's chop it down and go home!
After Dave cuts our prize tree down, we all trapse back to the "shed" to make our purchase. Now to load up our tree. We have a 15 passenger van, and last year with the back seat taken out we could fit the tree inside the van. Ummm...yeah, this tree seems a bit bigger than last year. It doesn't fit in the van.
Good thing we came prepared! We stuck a blanket in the back just in case something like this happened! Let's put the tree on top of the van and get going! The only thing the farm had for fastening the trees on was some old baling twine. This is the kind of rope that is made up of little strings all twisted together to form one thicker string. Oh well, I guess you gotta work with what you have, right? Dave tied the tree down and fastened the twine to anything he could find inside the van that was secure enough. The bottom of seats, seat belts, etc. Twice during this process the twine snapped. Not good.
The tree was finally fastened to the roof and we were on our way! As we pulled out of the driveway, Dave asked me to check the tree occasionally to make sure it wasn't slipping. No problem! I could handle this job. No sooner had he made the request than we heard strings snapping. Not the entire twine, but the little strings that made up the twine. "Uh, honey, the tree is sliding."
The tree was still attatched, but Dave decided that we had better play it safe and take all the back roads so that we could go slow enough that the wind wouldn't lift the tree off the roof. Good idea! We manage to make it about a mile from home when Julia cries out, "Daddy, Daddy! You are going to run over our Christmas Tree!"
Sure enough, the tree had slid off of the roof and was hanging on the side of the van...barely! The only thing that was holding it up was one solitary piece of twine that had managed somehow not to break. Dave said for me to cut the twine as he lifted the tree to give me some slack. That would have been fine except the only thing I had to cut it with was my set of keys!
I finally got the twine cut, but now we had another problem. There wasn't enough twine left to refasten the tree to the roof.
Dave opens the back of the van, shoves the tree in trunk first, and proceeds to stradle the tree. He tied the doors as far shut as they would go and then asks me to drive the rest of the way home with him riding our Christmas tree!
Some story, huh? But wait - it's not over! When it was time to take the tree inside and set it up, we came across another "little" problem. We couldn't get it in the door! You are probably thinking that we bought this enormous tree, right? Well, it wasn't any taller than our tree last year, it just was really, really "full" Okay, so it was a big, fat tree!
You know those little netting gizmos they have at tree places that they shove the trees through to put nets on them before you take them home? Well, this is the method that Dave used to get our tree through our front door. He turned the tree around and shoved it through the door trunk first. (I think maybe our tree lost a bit of that "full" look after coming in the doorway so abruptly!)
Our tree managed to dominate our living room for the rest of the Christmas season. Filled with lights and trimmed with all the kids decorations, it was quite a sight to behold. Very...festive. It will be nice to get some of the space back in our living room once it's gone, but for all the trouble our tree gave us, I'm kind of going to miss it.