Christmas

With yet another successful Thanksgiving under our belts Kerry and I marched boldly into the holiday season, venturing out the day after Thanksgiving to get our Christmas tree. While I don't think that either one of us would say that we've been displeased with our previous tree selections, until this year we had not sprung for the Noble. Quite frankly though, until this year we had not found the $25 Nobles.

While marriage is full of compromise, one of the things that Kerry and I are fairly agreed on is that a tree should at least go 3/4 of the way to the ceiling, should smell good, and while it should be well pruned, it should not look like it went through the yuletide pencil sharpener. In an effort to find this perfect tree we decided that we might need to leave the city limits (although there are plenty of places in town as the Willamette Valley provides most of the nation's Christmas trees). We turned to the paper and found an intriguing ad which read: Nobles, 12+ ft, $25. As it turns out it wasn't just the 12+ feet nobles that were $25, but rather those that fell within our desired size-range as well. Even with the plethora of trees virtually at our finger tips, it is difficult to find a Noble Fir for what we would consider to be a reasonable cost. This was a reasonable cost.

With that we hit the road ventured about 45 minutes south and met the nice elderly gentlemen who, presumably, is able to offer such affordable trees by up-selling unwitting tree-hunters with hand carved knickknacks. If either of our parents are reading this entry, you'll know that your children are rather particular when it comes to trees. We spent a good two hours wandering the property trying to find the perfect tree. We found it, cut it down, tied it to the top of the Subaru, and once again avoided being up-sold. There may have also been a few comments made by the proprietor about women and tying knots... We'll leave it at that. For those concerned, said purveyor of Christmas joy was still alive when we left the tree farm.

Now, Kerry and I own two sets of Christmas lights for the tree--a white set, and a colored set. Unless one waives his right of selection, we typically alternate between colored lights and white lights. This year we used the colored lights which meant that the white lights were used on the tree out front. We also decided that it was high time we got some other nicely-scented Christmas decorations--a wreath for the front door, clove pine-cones for the table, and one of those tastefully-smelly candles.

This was also the first year that we decided that we would try a new approach to Christmas: going back to our own house each night. We love our family dearly and found that we were exhausted at each stop because we hadn't had enough rest the night before. Generally we'll head to Eugene for Christmas Eve with the McLaughlins, spend the night, and leave between 5:00 and 6:00 in the morning to make the 4.5 hour drive to the Evans Christmas in Puyallup. We'll then do Christmas late into the evening, sleep for four hours and make the drive back to the valley for the Will Christmas on the 26th. To make sure the Wills, Evans, and McLaughlins all got the best of us we decided that each night we would sleep in our own bed. I think that our families got the best of us under this approach. We had a fantastic Christmas and felt lucky that we were able to have seen everyone.