Operation: Christmas Tree

Personally, I don't feel like it's really Christmas until there's a Christmas tree in my living room. One that's decorated with garland, colored lights (preferably blinking), ornaments commemorating significant events of years gone by, and is topped with an angel. And it has to smell like Christmas.

Because this is our first Christmas in Oak Grove, I had no idea where to buy a tree. I called Brian out of desperation to find a place that sells trees because I hadn't seen them at the Wal-Marts nearby. He suggested Ben's Landscaping in Blue Springs, so Jason and I took the truck.

Now, Jason and I have shopped for Christmas trees together before. Once or twice we selected one from CAFNR's Forestry Club lot to show support for the college. Other times we've grabbed one from the selection at Wal-Mart because it was easy to pick up on the way home from work. These times were spent looking over the trees very carefully before we committed to the one we would purchase. That is why I was very surprised when we arrived at the tree lot and Jason gave me three minutes to pick the tree!

Three minutes! I can't wrap a small Christmas present in that amount of time! How could he expect me to pick the perfect tree that would live in our house for nearly three weeks and be the sole representation of the season?! I had hoped that we would spend time selecting the tree together. After all, he was deployed last year. Nope.

"One tree," he said pointing to the Charlie Brown Christmas trees in the front corner, "decorated at our house would look just as good as the next one." And he pointed to the tall, full pine trees I was trying to decide between.

He almost had me convinced that I was too emotionally attached to the idea of the perfect tree...and then I came to my senses, picked the pine that measured up to my height and fullness standards and fell within our price range and made him carry it to the cash register...all before my three minutes were up!

Now the tree is standing in our front room, decorated with garland, colored lights and ornaments commemorating significant events of years gone by. It's topped with Grandma Mary's angel and it smells like Christmas.