Yes, yes, I know...it has an awesome name. My roommate speaks German, so we wanted to incorporate Tanenbaum. And our tree pretty much is thebomb.com. It brings Christmas joy to our home.
I was secretly hoping to get a tree this year, but up until last week, it didn't look like my roommates were interested and I couldn't afford one on my own. When I saw the Rockefeller tree in NYC I became a little more determined. Please note that I had already seen the National Christmas Tree in Washington, DC, but that was not inspiring and did not sway me in the slightest. Our DC 2nd Ward Christmas program was this last Sunday and that probably swayed me the most. I felt a need for the symbolism of the evergreen in our home and I needed the brilliant illumination in the living room.
It turned out that my roommate Julie felt the same way I did and we decided to buy a tree together. On Monday me, Julie, and Holly (friend who was crashing at our place after she was kicked out of the Barlow) hopped in the Flying Dakota and drove up the Rockville Pike to find a Christmas tree farm. Our intention was to buy a small tree--about three feet. The first place we went outside of White Flint Mall wanted $35-$40 for a tree that size. That was a bit more than we wanted to spend on a spontaneous and rather late-in-the-game tree purchase. We tried to negotiate, but the salesman called his boss Pablo and there was no way they were coming down on the price. We hopped back in the FD and drove a little further up the Pike.
It didn't take long to find another tree farm. This one was much bigger, was fully decked in lights and it had a big sign that read "Pablo's." It just so happened that Pablo who owned and ran this farm owned the satellite farm in front of White Flint Mall--which we had just visited. Pablo's farm had a just a few tiny trees and of course they were going for the same rate. This was just unacceptable. The three of us wandered around the trees for a few minutes trying to decide what to do, where to go. I was entranced. They were so big and beautiful and they smelled so divine. It reminded me of my family's annual tree-picking. Whoever got to go (between holiday concerts and rehearsals) was in for a real treat. We often chased each other in and out of the trees until mom and dad said to stop or...until someone ran into a tree. Sometimes there was free popcorn, cocoa and candy canes. I wondered for a moment at Pablo's if the three of us girls could play tag.
Then Holly and I spotted a tree. It was a little over six feet and definitely cost more money. It was a Douglas Fir, which is not the kind that my family normally gets--we're Fraser fans. Pablo taught us how to choose the tree based on smell--I had never done this before! And I'm surprised that my family always picked the rosemary-like smell of the Fraser when the Douglas has a sweet and wonderful citrus smell. I confessed to Julie that I did want a bigger tree now. She acquiesced to the request and we only ended up paying $50 for our tree. And by a Christmas miracle, we were able to use every bit of change we had to pay in cash and save $3. Pablo trimmed up our tree and loaded it in the FD. (I found out when we got home that this was Julie's first live tree!)
On the way home we stopped at Target to pick up lights since we didn't have enough now for our bigger tree. And then we documented the momentous occasion with pictures.
Our tree waiting to take a stand
interim support from Julie
Can you feel the joy?!
The man with the stand. JP and his roommate had leftover supplies from making a table. So when stands were sold out at the stores, they let us have some lumber. JP came over to help us make the stand.
This year's ornament from the Kennedy Center. In case you can't tell, it's a Nutcracker.
The lighting
0 comments:
Post a Comment