Christmas Birthdays

As with you all, it is a busy time of year here. The season is made even busier with the addition of my birthday 3 days before Christmas. This has always been hard. (I imagine it was hardest for my mother!) Now, my poor husband has to carry the burden of finding a birthday AND Christmas present for his wife who still attaches far too much importance to the day of her birth. Good friends of ours came up for the day to help celebrate and enjoy a Christmas visit. They brought supper with them as well as gifts for the kids and cookie dough which they baked and decorated with the kids. It was wonderful and we are so thankful for their generousity and thoughtfulness. The only part of the day that didn't go well was the tree.

The tree fiasco began on Saturday when we, who live in the land of the pine and spruce, were unable to find a Christmas tree. I asked at various businesses and all responses were ones of genuine puzzlement followed by suggestions about the side of the highway. The tree was complicated by Dave's staff Christmas party that we were supposed to arrive at by 5:30 pm with the hors d'oeuvres. Dave decided to take J and H to a Christmas tree farm near his parents' farm. I relished the idea of a quiet afternoon while the babies napped. The nap part went according to schedule but my husband did not. 4:30 pm (the estimated time of arrival) came and went and by 5:30 pm, Dave, children and tree were just pulling into the driveway. The staff party, I imagined, was getting peckish. In my frenzy to get out the door, I briefly glanced at the tree and noticed that, oh darn, it was a scotch pine and sort of round. We arrived at the party in time for supper and enjoyed the evening.

The tree sat in the garage ignored on Sunday and the good part of Monday. For some reason, Dave seemed reluctant to bring it in. He had remarked to me on our drive to the party that it had been very difficult to find a tree. Half way around the circuit of the tree farm, Jacob began to cry as he had forgotten his mittens. This resulted in a trek back to the truck for the sake of the little boy's hands. By this time, dusk was settling in and Dave was growing worried about his arboreal pursuit. He eventually set his sights upon a suitable spruce. Unfortunately at the same time that he caught sight of the prize, so did two men with a chainsaw and a six pack. Dave, armed only with five year old twins and a handsaw, backed away and settled for what he termed "the hedge". I almost didn't post pictures of it. In fact, I considered creating a link to another site where people could view the tree... But, here it is after Hannah decorated it. It looks a bit like a huge holiday spider attacked it. You will notice that it is rather short. Interestingly, my father said that their tree looks like the top half of someone else's. Perhaps we should photoshop the two together.

Epilogue: The tree is coming down today (Christmas Eve) and the (gasp) artificial tree (stolen from paternal grandparent's basement) is going up. Only this year, CJamesRun, only this year.

p.s. Anyone who can find the typo on the cake wins a prize!