O Christmas Tree O Christmas Tree

I usually get the Christmas tree up right after Thanksgiving, but that didn't happen this year. When I finally get around to the garage where I store the tree I came across a problem. I couldn't find the tree. I looked high and low, all over that garage, for at least 1/2 hour. I finally gave up on the tree at the time, but did get some Christmas light drapped around the front porch. I wanted some points for being productive.

I said something to the kids later, Angel pips up that she thought I threw the tree away last year. I blew off the thought, that would be impossible. Later I said something specifically to Jim and he confirmed what was already said....I threw the tree out last year. I was completely stunned and baffled. I mean....really, I did? First of all, why? And secondly, why for the life of me can I not even remember doing that? Seriously I have no clue.

Upon further pondering I came to vaguely remember my doing this act last year. The tree was "old" and quite worn. We bought it 10 years ago when Mandy was a baby. It's had it's use. And one way to guarantee that we get a new tree was to just pitch it. But we never replaced the tree and with the ever so tough economy this year we didn't have any extra money sitting around for another one right now.

So I dragged out an even older tree that I had hung onto for many years. It was the first Christmas tree that Jim & I ever had, a little bitty 3 footer. My mom had used it for many years in her sunday school class and gave it to us for our first Christmas cause back then we didn't have any money for a tree either. (Huh, somethings never change.)

Even though I would have loved for Jim to go out and just buy me a new one, I really didn't care if we had a big fancy tree. Christmas is not all about a tree and how pretty it is. I also thought it would serve as a good "remember when" story for the future and a lesson to the kids. A perfect lesson in contentment, doing with what we had. We could have no tree, but we at least had this. When I explained things to the kids, they didn't really care either how big the tree was or wasn't. They just wanted something up to put presents under. So we made a family night of it, playing the Christmas music loud and clear, working together to get the job done. All of our ornaments didn't fit on there so we picked what we could to fit on. The star would reach all the way to the top either. So we just patched it together. I call it our Charlie Brown Christmas tree. I like it.