Oh Christmas tree!

The Christmas trees that I remember most are from the years that the acquiring of them was the most adventurous. Some of the most fun were when we would set out in early December all packed in our little green Subaru to southern Idaho. After getting a permit would head up the snow covered canyon as far as we could make it with the low clearance and all-year weather tires, confident that the further from civilization we made it the higher quality the tree would be. Once we found a place to pull off the road, we’d bundle up the best we could and get out of the car. After a quick discussion we’d agree that, since no good trees grew along the side of the road and since the snow was too deep to trek through with barely-learning-to-walk kids in tow, I would search for the perfect tree and Shannon would have to trust me to make a good decision. After hiking all over the mountain searching for that perfectly symmetrical tree with the proverbial pillar of light from above, I’d finally have to settle on an “almost perfect”, chop it down, drag it back and tie it to the top of the car.

Christmas 2008 - Idaho

This year the Christmas tree hunt was much less “wilderness” but no less adventurous. We were happy to see Christmas tree stands with real trees pop up all over Denmark near the end of November. However we were less excited to see the prices; it seem no matter how long we live here we can’t help but convert costs to dollars and reference that to what we would expect to pay in Utah (which probably is not the best reference for the rest of the world).  We were also concerned that while we saw lots of trees we saw no tree stands that would hold water to keep them alive for the month. Needless to say we were somewhat hesitant to buy one. As the month wore on our desire to make our Danish home feel a little Christmasy intensified; we thought that we could satisfy our holiday yearning with a small tree and a single strand of lights – however this was somewhat disappointing.

Finally, ten days before Christmas I broke down and decided to buy a really tree, on my way home from work I found a lot kind of near our house (1.5 miles) that seemed to have lower prices. Once I tracked down the proprietor I found out he spoke no English (unusual here), luckily I have gotten pretty good a charades. After some pointing, hand jesters and slow enunciating of foreign words with the vain hope that it would add understanding, I think we came to understanding. I found a tree, had it tied up and ready to go along with a wooden X to nail to the bottom for a stand (I was told that in cold humid Denmark trees dry out much slower).

The next challenge was getting it home. I tried first balancing it on my bike while I walked beside it, but it was difficult to steer and balance at the same time.  Once I got out of the city center, I decided to try to ride while holding the tree with one hand. After some trial and error I figured out that if I pressed the trunk to one side of my handlebars while holing it to my shoulder I could steer and take some of the weight off. After that it was a slow but uneventful ride home.

Note the toilet paper roll angel Myra made for the top 

Once we got it set up in the house, added lights that I think are meant for outside bushes since they are arranged in a "net" rather then a "strand" formation, and decorated with some very clever homemade Christmas ornaments that Shannon came up with, it really brightened up our home and brought the Christmas feeling we had been looking for. It might not be the most beautiful tree that we have ever had but I am sure it will be one of our favorites and most memorable for a long time.