A Griswold Family Christmas

You are never going to believe it, I see it everyday and I still don't. Read on.

So........the 5 of us headed to Portland this last weekend to spend some quality time with Rob's mom. (shown above) We ate, we laughed, we played and then Monday came around and we anticipated that we would search for a Christmas tree. So, on our way back from a Costco trip, we stopped at a U-Cut tree farm that had a sign boasting $15 trees. We figured there would be strings attached "$15 if it is under 3 feet" or something to that affect but much to our surprise, the man, Charlie, pointed to all their lovely 3 feet trees and then told us that the far field's trees were also $15. As we starred in disbelief at the giants that grew there, Rob started to salivate and marched himself directly in that direction.

After searching for about 15 minutes, we decided on the tree we picked first and gave Charlie the nod. He came over with his chainsaw and twine and cut our tree down. As he helped us wrap it up, hoist it and tie it to the top of our expedition, we thanked him profusely. As we turned to give him our money, he ran off saying he wouldn't accept it and payment would be for us to get home safely since we had a 180 mile drive ahead of us. We couldn't believe it. We had a mammoth tree on our car and it didn't cost a dime. I didn't even use a coupon and I still got a good deal. :)

The trip home was uneventful and we decided to hoist the tree that night so that it wouldn't get wet in the rain. Let's just say we seriously under estimated the height of the tree in proportion to our ceiling height. Turns out we have 14 foot ceilings and we were trying to fit a 16 foot 3 inch tree in it. Rob's eyes just sparkled the whole time. We had to do some minor surgery but we have a beautiful Griswold family Christmas tree smack dab in the center of our living room. We also had to anchor it to the wall with some rope and a hook drilled into the wall stud.

We went to decorate it last night and all 6 of our strands of white lights were working only half way. We are going to do the red, white and green scheme and we have the red and green but no white. I am off to Home Depot to clean them out. It is going to be quite a feat to get those lights up there. And I can tell you right now that we don't have anywhere near enough ornaments. So, if you are going to bring our family presents this year...and I know you are...bring ornaments....and maybe something to eat with sugar in it. :)

Enjoy the pictures. It is humongous. Come on over and check it out!!! I will update you with pictures after we decorate it.

Family picture in front of our monstrosity.

Before untying it! Sort of resembles something from Dr Suess, doesn't it?