Tree At Last

And there was much rejoicing; the Nodlings did a dance -- literally.

"Tree at last! Tree at last! Thank God Almighty there's a tree at last!" (with apologies to MLKJ)

Now it's just a fake tree with simple white lights and no ornaments (it's still only Advent after all). But you would have thought I offered them all free ice cream for a year. Even the youngest, Nib, was jumping up and down screaming "Lights! Lights!" Nub clapped his hands, while Wynken and Nod-girl danced in the living room. Even Blynken got off her sick couch to help articulate the branches.

With car accidents and sicknesses and various obligations, we haven't been able to put up the tree until today. The Nodlings have been asking for it every single day. They finally got their wish when they clued-in that Dear Old Dad needed some help with the house to free up the necessary time. They did their homework, ate without a fuss, loaded the dishwasher, cleaned their rooms and the living room, and even folded a bit of laundry. I, for my part, rearranged some furniture and dug out the tree from its lonely basement corner with things piled atop.

Our tree is a modest affair, both in price and quality. We had to make a switch a few years ago from a real live tree for a number of reasons: cost, fire safety, clean-up, and a moderately severe allergy to cut trees on the in-law side.

I do miss the real thing, however. I help our KoC council sell them at the church lot. It's a nice tradition and they smell great. Having a real tree just feels like authentic Christmas since we grew up with it. There's a lot of fun in picking just the right tree: size, shape, needles, hue. We know a family who have an annual tradition of cutting down their tree from a tree farm every year and strap it to the top of their car and drive it 50 miles home.

What's your Christmas tree tradition? Which is better: real or artificial?
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