Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas tree....

ok, I'll tell you the truth...I secretly resent purchasing a Christmas tree every year. If we MUST purchase one, I try to go for the absolutely CHEAPEST ones & that means they usually look like Charlie Brown trees....right?

Think about it. Where we live (& the great bargain shopper that I am) the price of ONE tree could be the equivalent of NUMEROUS gifts! So if there is a choice to be made...I choose gifts.

We did have a gorgeous fake, but very real looking, tree for a few years that was GIVEN to us because the owners got tired of it & wanted a new one. My gain! :o)

Then we thought we were going to move out of state, where legend has it you do NOT pay $50 for a tree but rather go to the forest & chop your own. So we sold our gorgeous tree for a bargain @ a yard sale! Consequently, we did NOT move out of state & here we were.....in the market for a tree!

Well, never is a budget as tight as it is during Christmas time....right?...as this season creeped closer & closer, I doubted we'd truly be able to afford the tree vs. gifts debate.

I had a momentary laps of nostalgia & longed for a pine...but I got over it quickly & chose to revel in the Christmas Spirit, sans the $50 Douglas fir OR the Charlie Brown pine branch. I did what any lover of the season, but financially challenged reveler would do...I dragged my 3 ficus from the backyard, drowned them in twinkle lights & covered them in ornaments. The ornaments that couldn't fit...I hung from (fake) pine garland around the window.

It looked quite festive & I was a bit proud of myself for remaining joyous despite the odds.

THEN....H sprung it on me....ALL he wants for Christmas is a TREE! {moan} I guess the 'ficus' just wasn't working for him.

I didn't fret...but I wondered WHERE I'd find a tree......besides all my hoping that I'd get all my 'crochetted' gifts done in time for Christmas Morn.

I sent a quick thought to God that maybe, as in Christmas's past...one would just 'happen'. Even though I was sure God had much more important things to do this Christmas than find us a tree.

Every few days, we'd pass buy the local grocery parking lot & see the tree lot...prices supposedly @ just under $30. I wondered if that meant they started @ $30 or the good ones were that price & I could possibly find a 'Charlie Brown' for $10 or something...but not this week anyway.

I rode the ktbunch to my mom's group on Today like I always do & the hostess had her tree up. It was fake but looked real enough & was quite lovely. She told us of how her son's baseball team was selling trees as a fund raiser & naturally they bought one. It made her sneeze SO much that they took it down & had to drag the fake one out after all. The real one was now lying uselessly in her patio. I won't bore you w/ the other monotonous details...but WE snagged ourselves a TREE!

I didn't tell H & I made sure NOT to tell the littles cause they can't keep a secret for ANYthing. Oldest ds & I planned on picking it up the next day while Dh was @ work & getting it all put up to surprise H when he got home............stay tuned!