Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree

Decorating the tree is one of my favorite Christmas traditions. This year it was doubly exciting because we got a real tree. Last year we had a fake tree, because our real tree the year before caused some allergy problems for my wife. But we cleaned our heat vents earlier in the year and her allergies have been much better, so she said we could have a real tree this year.

The first challenge we had to overcome related to our Christmas tree stand. I have a lazy streak that occasionally causes problems for me, and unfortunately I never really took care of the Christmas tree we had two years ago (it's been sitting in our garage since then and is quite brown). The type of stand we use just has a metal tube over which the tree can be placed (the guys at the Christmas tree lot drill a hole in the bottom of the trunk). It's nice because the tree is always straight, but apparently if you leave a tree on one of those stands for two years it gets stuck. I had tried three or four times to pull the old tree off its stand, and even a crowbar couldn't get the job done. I really didn't want to have to buy a new stand, so when my wife suggested that I try cutting the tree with an ax I decided to give it a shot. I imagined I would have to cut the tree off at the trunk and then split the remaining wood, but it only took two hits to break the dry trunk off the stand. Perhaps this year I'll remove the tree from the stand right after we take it down. Perhaps ...

We usually buy our tree from the Macey's parking lot, where they sell mostly "mountain trees" which are a little more rustic looking and uneven than trees that are grown at farms. Several years ago the woman who works there told me that people can be really mean around Christmas time. I was a little shocked, because Christmas is supposed to be a time of joy and happiness and good will towards men. So ever since she told me that, I have gone out of my way to be nice to her. This year as we walked out of the lot with our tree she said, "Thanks for being one of the nice ones!" It made me feel good :)

When we got the tree home we put it on its stand and realized that it was much wider than we had initially thought (it takes up half our living room):


Here is a picture of me after stringing the lights (I LOVE the new LED lights, they are so much easier to deal with than the old ones):

While we decorated we listened to Trans-siberian orchestra music (thus the title of this blog entry). My oldest daughter is playing "Wizards in Winter" with her school orchestra (she and I are going to the Trans-siberian orchestra concert on December 28th) and my son has adopted it as his new favorite song. I can't put on music anymore without him asking me to play it:


My youngest daughter:


My wife:

Me and my son:


My oldest daughter:


The finished product:


I have never really had one of those "fancy" trees where the ornaments match and are evenly spaced, but I kind of like the "randomly throw on all the ornaments you can find" approach that gets everyone involved.

We couldn't find the plug for our Christmas star this year, so the top is bare for now. I would like to put an angel on top, but everyone else wants a star. I guess both are symbols of the Christmas season, so either one will be fine ... if I ever get around to it (remember, I have that lazy streak :) )