O' Tanenbaum

There she is. In all Her glory. Twelve towering feet of Oregon Noble Fir.

A tree more fitting for a small town's downtown courthouse square. Or a mall.

But no, here she towers....in our living room.

Nate saw this tree one evening on his drive home from work.

His eyes narrowed in on this beaut and he just knew it had to be his.

He took me to meet The Tree on Saturday.

While obviously ridiculous, 6 feet too tall and environmentally irresponsible,

I just couldn't deny Nate The Tree.

He was in love, goofey smile, twinkling eyes and all.

It was as though I was seeing him as a 4 year old on Christmas morning.

I caved.

Half a free donut and small fortune later, we drove away from the lot.

With a specialized tree stand contraption.

The 8 inch tree trunk intimidating me through the sunroof above.

I swear it was crying, or maybe just weeping sap.

I really, honestly, try to be a responsible renter of Mother Earth.

I have a very close friend and I work for a company that encourages

"sustainability" and "responsibility".

And by "encourage", I mean my company took away my trash can

so I have to recycle everything

and my good friend gives me weekly leaflets, emails and forces me to watch

PETA videos as I struggle to look away (just kidding, Ang)

This was anything but sustainable and I knew it.

On the drive home, my mind worked quickly to think of what I can do

to make up for my environmental indiscretion.

I already recycle, reuse and drive a small fuel efficient car.

I already shy away meat (most of the time)

and leather products and just this weekend

turned down a beautifully hideous* sheepskin rug for my living room.

I decided that this year, I'll make it up.

I'll strive to do more.

Learn more.

Teach my kids more about their Mother Earth.

* The top of the rug was soooo beautiful, that is, until you turned it over. The bottom side reminded me of my poor dog.......E-"ruff" said.

The tree was just gorgeous and smelled like you crawled into an Elf's house whose floor is layered in pine and sugar cookies.

You want to crawl up it, build a tree house and spend the

next few weeks breathing the amazing scent it emits.

It makes you envy squirrels.

And then the justification hit me, just like that....

The tree had already been cut.

There was nothing I could do to change that.

I could, however, make it the most beautiful tree ever.

More beautiful than another family that would have bought it

and maybe bound it with Dollar Tree tinsel garland.

I love catching Nate staring at the tree when he thinks

I'm not looking and imagine that he is reminicing

about his childhood Christmas'.

I loved seeing Henry hang all of his ornaments on one branch

like my little sisters used to do and

loved seeing Charlie copy Henry's every move even though

he had no idea why we were doing what we were doing,

or how to even hang an ornament for that matter.

You walk into our house and you know it is Christmas.

Not just because you have to physically step around the tree,

or because you are hit with the intense scent of pine

that you can occasionally taste,

but because The Tree has become a symbol.

A massive statuesque symbol of

magic,

hope,

traditions,

giving,

family and most of all, memories.

Our tree is FULL of memories by way of the ornaments that hang from it.

Thank you Mother Earth for our beautiful tree and all that it means to my family.

Happy Holidays

Rusty Griswold: "Dad, this tree won't fit in our back yard."

Clark: "It's not going in the yard, Russ. It's going in the living room."