4 years ago around Christmas time, we were blessed with the birth of our first son. Being new parents, it was hard for us to figure out how to squeeze in a shower everyday let alone try to prepare for the holidays. Christmas Eve was suddenly upon us. We realized we had no decorations hung, no presents, no tree! We decided for the sake of our son's first Christmas, we needed to at least put up a tree in honor of the typical tradition of hanging a "first Christmas" ornament. So off we went in search of a tree on Christmas Eve day. Luckily, the first place we went had a variety of beautiful Christmas Trees all at 75% off! We were so excited to get such a bargain and had so much fun decorating our prefect tree that we decided to make buying and decorating our tree on Christmas Eve a tradition. Each year since, this tradition has come with its challenges. The next year we went to the same store on Christmas Eve to buy our tree, to find they had no more trees. In fact, the entire county was of trees. Due to the holiday schedule of the trash collection, all the trees were picked up. We called my parents, who planned to spend Christmas at our house, and told them we wouldn't have a tree this year. Luckily, they found a tree on someone's curb (thrown away early due to a holiday vacation) and they brought the tree with them. That year the decorating time was cut down a bit, but we still finished in time for Christmas day. The next year we found a new place, a beautiful tree farm close to home. Being a tree farm, we thought we would not have the problem of supply, demand, and garage pick-up so we declared that spot the place for us to buy a tree every year on Christmas Eve - and still a bargain at 50% off. This year we went to the tree farm on the night before Christmas Eve (just to be safe) only to find a sign with the word CLOSED! Sadly, we drove home to figure out Plan B, and to our surprise, we found a tree lot in town, with TREES! The lot had a sign with the hours of 5:30pm - 8:00pm, it was 4:30pm. So we drove home and waited and came back promptly at 5:30pm to find no one was there and the lights were completely dark. We waited, waited, and waited. Finally at 6:30pm, we realized the the gate to the lot was wide open. We went in nervously and found a tree and quickly threw it in the truck, I swear I was hearing sirens! I wonder what this tradition will bring next year....
|
