O (NO!) Christmas Tree, O (darn) Christmas Tree

I haven’t had time to blog yet about our first Oregon Christmas tree; how I determined that we were going to have FUN getting it, and be like real Oregonians, and so one Saturday afternoon after the rain had stopped and before it started again (and before dark which happens here at about 4:30pm) we went to a Christmas tree farm.

[Oregon, as it turns out, is the #1 Christmas tree grower in the United States.  Followed, ironically, by North Carolina.  We had to drive approximately 8 minutes to get to the Christmas tree farm.  We passed several others on the way, as well as some tree lots.  There are LOTS of Christmas trees here.]

Had I blogged about getting our first Oregon Christmas tree, I could have posted pictures of how pretty the area was,

 

and how we walked up and down the hill with our tall measuring stick, looking for the perfect tree,

how there really is moss everywhere,

how we decided to cut an older tree and just cut it farther from the ground,

how everyone took a turn helping dad with the sawing,

how excited we were when it toppled over, how it had started raining again (earlier than the weather.com prediction), and how we slipped and slid as we carried our very heavy tree back up the muddy hill.

I would have told you that the kids waded in the pond to clean the mud off of their rainboots,

And that we decided to put the tree in the entry, thinking that this year with the mirrors there (hopefully they will be gone long before next Christmas) maybe that would be cool with the Christmas tree lights. 

If I had had time to blog I would have told you that it took over a week before we finally decorated the tree, and that as big as this tree was, we still had more ornaments than we could use. 

I probably would have explained that I’d just read that it’s better somehow (faster? better coverage? can’t really remember…) to put the lights on the tree vertically instead of wrapping them horizontally, so Russ tried it that way just for this year.

I’m sure I would have said that at some point every year I’m wishing for a pre-lit tree.

I could have told you that sometimes it was the tree that got decorated,

and sometimes it was Russ.

And that Josh doesn’t like decorating the tree, so he played around on the piano and then took pictures for us.

And that I still haven’t taken the time to take any good pictures.

But I didn’t, because I’ve been too busy to blog.

 

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In the middle of the night I thought I heard something, and I felt Russ sit up in bed beside me.  I worried that someone might be breaking into the house.  Russ didn’t get up and go anywhere though, so I decided that something must have fallen in the boy’s room above us.  And I closed my eyes and went back to sleep.

 

This morning Russ got up and into the shower and I rolled over and tried to go back to sleep.  Just as I was convincing myself it really was going to happen, there was a knock on my bedroom door.  Darn it, I thought, Russ is in the shower and so I will have to deal with this!  I asked what they needed, and then I heard Rachel’s little voice coming through the door,

The Christmas tree fell over!

Ahhhh, I thought….that was the sound in the night.  No one was breaking in after all.  It was just the darned tree, falling.

And when we went in and picked it back up, falling again just for good measure.

By the time Russ was out of the shower we had it up again, and he & Jared spent quite a long time re-adjusting it in the tree stand.  He realized that it hadn’t been watered for a day or two and we think that’s one reason it fell.

I’m surprised at how few ornaments broke, considering a huge tree fell onto a wood floor.  A few of the ornaments that broke are part of sets, so the loss of one or two is sad but not unbearable.  There are a couple that I am hoping can be mended.

We swept up all of the pine needles (though I guess these are really fir needles, since this is a noble fir), bits of broken stuff, and sand from one of the broken ornaments, picked up all of the unbroken ornaments and set them in a box.  Russ & I re-strung the lights but I’d just borrowed the extension cord for something else yesterday so we don’t know yet if any of the lights are broken. 

Hopefully I’ll get the ornaments back on tomorrow (the rest of today is for sewing, duh!) and even remember to get a few pictures.

Right now Russ is on his way to the hardware store.  I think we’re going to tie the tree to the ceiling…just in case…