We’ve been thinking about Christmas Trees for a little while and hoping we could get a potted Christmas Tree like we always had in England. It was a bit like Chinese whispers, people would tell us to try one store, we’d get there then the store would tell us to try a different store and so on. So we finally tracked some down and hit a slight snag – the trees were about $200 each! In England they’re the same price as the cut trees, and a fake tree was out of the question. Kim had her heart set on spending out for a potted tree but spending that much every single year is a bit much so we decided to settle for a cut tree. We got the stand and some tree feeder and lights and planned to go out the next day. Off we set in the car with no idea where we were going until Kim spotted a sign saying ‘Christmas Tree Farm’ just down the road from us. Great we thought… until we pulled up to a small shack and an old man who looked like Father Christmas handed us this and said to drive down and pick any one we liked… huh…
So Kim chose the tree she liked and I got under it and cut it down, this photo of Kim below is staged, I didn’t trust her with the hacksaw so I gave her the important task of putting down the seats in the car!
Then we took it back to Santa to pay for the tree and get it wrapped up which was easier said than done – firstly he couldn’t understand a word I was saying, he could barely understand a word Kim was saying. Secondly he was just old and doddery, we sort of took over wrapping the tree, I even did the little winch part to wrap the tree because he was faffing around with god only knows what. We ushered him away and loaded it on the car ourselves whilst he was still wondering aloud where his wife was… I can only assume she escaped him to get away from his incessant talking bless him.
So home we got it and it looked so small until we fluffed it out.
We located the Christmas decorations box and hung up our stockings. As a child I used to have a M&S stocking that was huge, there was no end to presents you could fit in there, I think I could fit both my legs in there like a mermaid! It was a matching one with my brother Charles’ – I think mine hand Santa skiing on it and his had bells (the bells were how you could catch Santa out – obviously) and maybe a reindeer. Now we have skiing snowmen.
So we put all the lights and decorations up and now our house smells lovely, just missing some chocolate tree decorations.
hayleyiraina 