Oh Tannenbaum, where art thee?

     In late September, 2007, I moved into our brand new, still not quite finished home, with half of our furniture and our eldest son and his family.  Hubby had remained behind in Virginia Beach with our youngest son and the other half of our furniture while the house of being completed and to wind down his practice.
     We settled into a routine of my son and his mate, working on the house, completing the upper kitchen cabinets and the interior doors and I left for work each day, sometimes babysitting their then little one so they could visit friends or work together on a project for the house that required two adults without the help of a toddler.
     Before we knew it, it was December, our first in the new house, hubby was coming up with youngest son, daughter had said she and her 11 month old would try to come up from Florida, the whole crew with kids for our celebration.  That meant decorating, which I always have taken to the max at Christmas.  Out came all the Santa collection, up went wreaths, fresh garland was purchased by the yard for the loft and stair railings and I wanted a real tree, a substantial tree.  After all, we had a cathedral ceiling with heavy timber support at the ceiling of our log home and only half the living room furniture, so there definitely was room.  Eldest son went with me into town to look for a fresh cut tree.  At that point, I didn't know that there were two tree farms just miles from our house, but we knew of a lot in town run by one of the local farms that sells produce at the Farmer's Market.  As soon as we drove into the lot, I turned to son and said, "I want that one!"  He looked incredulously at me and said, "Mom, are you sure?"  I couldn't be more sure, it was perfect, full and at least 10 feet tall.  Son shrugged and said, "OK, I'll help."  
     Tree was paid for and with the help of the lot attendant, we tied it on the top of my CRV with the garland in the trunk and headed home.  The tree was so full, that even tied, it barely came through the front door.  Three of us struggled to get it upright in the stand, securely so it wouldn't topple.  The decorations that had adorned our 7 footers for years, looked sparse, but wonderful. 

      There have been subsequent trees, some live and root balled, later planted in the yard, some cut, but none quite as generous as that one.
      This year, the house is decorated with Santas, wreaths, but so far, no tree.  Between illness, dealing with two pups, one of which will be terrified once the tree is up, helping a neighbor try to repair the bull neighbor's fence to keep Ferdinand off our property, we just haven't gotten around to the tree yet.  The house just doesn't look complete yet.  Eldest son and family will be here Saturday, so we best get on it, I think tomorrow is tree day and though we won't have the whole crew here this year, we will see all of our children and grandchildren on or within a few days of Christmas.