There is no one outside monitoring the plants so I rush inside to customer service and ask, "What do I have to do to get that tree?" I pay for it at the service desk. They call a couple of young, strapping guys to come over to package it up and load it into my SUV.
For over a week I'd been asking my wonderful husband to go with me to pick one out. He's been so busy with work, among other excuses, so it hadn't happened yet. I had given up and was about to pull out the old handy artificial tree out of the garage. As much as I have come to loath that fake tree -there's only a week left until Christmas. It seemed pointless to buy a live tree at this point. $10.00 changed everything.
Now I'm not saying it's the most perfect tree I've ever seen. There are a few gaps in it, but it's natural. The thing about nature and art in my opinion, is there is no such thing as perfection. It is what it is.
My prodigal son (22) returned home last night to help his father put the tree into the stand. He was in a charming mood after a week full of drama. (That's a whole other story!) I thought he and his girlfriend were coming over to help decorate, but I ended up doing most of the decorating myself, along with Blue. I really didn't want any help anyway. I wanted to do it my way, as my husband would tell you, that's how I want everything.
Hubby put on our vast selection of Christmas music...(his addiction of choice -music and cookies, mine - martinis and wine). BTW -he hates when I write about him. He and my eldest son went out to get take out. The rest of us (Mom, son's girlfriend V- and Blue) sang, danced, drank wine (Mom and I) and finished trimming the tree. As we finished, Red descended down from his room and put a huge smile on his face when he saw the tree. He put the star on the top. It is so rare to see a genuine smile on his face, so that was awesome.
Tree decorating, music, wine, good food and all children present made for a simple yet beautiful night.
