The Day After Thanksgiving...

Karerina, That is one big, beautiful tree--I can't imagine the fun you'll have decorating it (and would LOVE to see it when it's done)!  Happy Holidays!

How fun...shopping for Christmas Trees in short sleeves. Oh my, Mike asked me the other day if I had ever spent Christmas in a warm climate. The answer was no. I do love the smell of fresh pine but the dry needles are just too much. It ruins my vacuums every year so we went artifical a few years ago, now I burn candles that smell like pine. Not great but it works.

Katerina...

When our Sons or The Grandkids aren't going to be around...We skip the tree. For me it's just a whole lot of work. Yup. I'm lazy like that. Does the fact that I decorate my plants make up for the lazy? :)

On a different note...I remember growing up in NH and my Dad would take all of us out into the woods to pick out our tree. We'd pick out a nice Pine Tree Top and Dad would climb up and chop it down. Right before he'd let the tree loose he'd shout at his so we could collectively hollar "TIMBEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRR"

Such wonderful memories of simplier times. Nowadays if you chopped down the top of a Pine Tree who knows what orginization that would piss off :)

P.S. I think I should get extra points for comments like this one :)

TLW...ROAR!

Nice tradition.  I'm still waiting to go out and cut the tree - but we have found one suitable, just need the time.

I get my tree every year on the day after Thanksgiving as well...out of a box, insert the branches and wa-la, there it is.  I changed to the fake tree after my kids lost interest in setting it up and decorating. Oh well, some traditions can't last forever I guess.  The thing my grown kids are most upset about is that we no longer have a burn-the-tree party in the backyard each year the day after Christmas as the tree goes up in a ball of fire.  Yes, some traditions were meant to end.

We used to get in more fights about Christmas trees!  When my husband and I were first married, we would go get a tree together, and I would make him nuts because I had to look at every tree inthe lot before I could make a decision.  So then we decicded he could just go with the kids.  Being brought up Jewish, and marrying out, my husband would come home with a big tree, and when he told me what it cost, I would just about faint!

So now we have an artificial tree, doesn't smell as good, but sure has saved us a lot of dumb arguments!  But it still doesn't seem right that the Jew in the family spends the most time decorating the tree!!

Nestor & Katerina, When I was stationed in the 52nd state, Guam, I would get homesick when I would see the ships from Bremerton WA. arrive with very ugly Christmas trees. These trees would be so dried out after that long trip. Ah, Christmas memories...

Katrina - Here in Upsate NY, I am surrounded by Christmas tree farms - in any direction within a mile or two there is one. My son worked at one as a teenager. Personally, I have never been to one, other than to pick my son up from work. I hate the mess. But, I do love the smell. We usually spray the Bath & Body works pine fragrance and get the same effect. Our fake tree looks so real that people have to feel it. I totally understand the tradition but I can get my tree out of the basement in a matter of 5 minutes and it's up within half an hour. I'd have to stand out in cold frigid temperatures to chop down a tree and I hate the cold.

I have a tradition of hanging the Christmas lights the day after Thanksgiving... but like so many new year's resolutions, I tend to not quite get to it. Maybe next year? :-)

Have a very Merry Christmas Katerina... to you and your entire family... I've very much enjoyed reading your posts this year.

It sounds as though you've tried every tree acquisition method! We have yet to go out and get our own tree, which is amazingly easy now that we live in Southern Oregon. Maybe next year... A merry Christmas to you and yours, and blessings for a wonderful 2009.