My Kind of Shopping

My family has a Thanksgiving tradition--the day after our big feast we go shopping. No Black Friday sales here. I, and fortunately the rest of my family, am not too fond of getting up ridiculously early to fight other crazy people in order to get the store sales I can get from the comfort of my own computer chair. No, this type of shopping does not involve sales or fighting traffic. Instead we drive out into the middle of nowhere, take a bumpy ride on top of some hay bales and make our selection in the fields.

We picked out our 2010 Christmas tree.

This has been our fifth year getting a real tree. Despite the trouble (read: lots of pine needles on the floor) and potential fire hazards, we keep going back for more. We name our tree every year and unfortunately I can't recite every past name, though the Hershey Kiss one was quite memorable.

This year we've named ours Larry Bob.

Very apropos or just random? Let me add my niece and nephew named him. I named our tree Angelina one year, which seems more seasonal to me, but then what do I know? I'm just a boring grown up.

We made our selection quickly. Even though the sky was a perfectly clear, painfully bright blue, it was fairly chilly. I was bundled in a sweatshirt, fashionably scruffy scarf, jacket, windbreaker, thick gloves and stocking cap. I also made my sister wear earmuffs, despite her protests (I put them on her when her hands were occupied with the nephew). When you have big ears like me, you become highly conscious of the cold breeze whipping around your head.

After our quick hayride back to the store in the Steeler wagon, they shook out our tree to loosen any pine needles or stray animals. What they neglected to loosen were two birds nests we found while stringing up the lights. I pulled them out, praying there were no dead bodies in them. It occurred to me only later that maybe having the nests in there would have added to the authenticity of our real tree.

We finished trimming the tree late that night (Our trimming did not involve scissors of any sort. I'm not certain I understand that word in relation to Larry Bob). With the tree ablaze, we followed another tradition: turn off all the lights and watch our handiwork blinking in the darkness with Christmas carols playing in the background.