So, Thursday night we went to get our Christmas tree. Our son, Reeve, is home from college for the holidays and wanted to share with his girlfriend, Eliza, our family tradition of walking to the tree lot run by Delancey Street Foundation, picking out a tree, and carrying it home on our shoulders, old-school–style.
It was snowing—had been snowing all day when we set out, bundled up and feeling festive. But when we got to the lot, it was CLOSED! (How can a tree lot close?) A security guard told us that they had shut down early due to the bad weather so that the employees could all get home safely before the roads got too bad.
Disappointed (singing “No Christmas tree, No Christmas tree”) and not really sure what to do with the evening we had set aside for Christmasy things, we headed back to the house. However, on the walk home, while talking about Christmas trees we had had in the past, we realized that we had, in our attic, an aluminum tree we had bought back in 2004, used once, and then forgotten about.
Since we had made such a big deal about walking the tree home and wanting Eliza to have that experience, we got the aluminum tree from the attic, took it down the block a ways, then turned around and let her help carry it to our house.
We laughed a lot (especially as people passed us, smiling) then went inside for a lovely evening of tree decorating and cookie baking.
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Photos: (above) My Tim, Reeve’s friends, Evan and Justen, and Reeve (on the other end of the tree) carry our freshly picked-out tree from the Delancey lot in 2008; (bottom) Eliza and Reeve carrying on the tradition, albeit in slightly shinier style.
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P.S. We really like our silver tree! And I’m grateful for the lesson in the beauty of holiday flexibility. . .
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© 2009 Mothering Magazine