Holiday Logistics

It's taken me an immense amount of time to get ready for the holidays, and so far I haven't. The most major progress has been receiving a few gifts in the mail, but I can't take much credit for that.

What I have done, however, is retrieve, set up, and decorate the smallest tree seen outside of a Peanuts cartoon and get it ready for moving to a spot of honor.

The first task, and the one I'd neglected the longest time, was getting a tree. There's a lot that shows up each year on the remains of a gas station, and I pedalled over there hoping they'd take plastic since I had no cash. They did, and after a bit of haggling, I got the tree I wanted. They tried to charge extra for it since it was "full and more beautiful," but I instantly pointed out that a bundled tree could very well be sparse and homely.

That didn't work, and they tried to sway me with discussion of tree species or types or something like that, but I was having none of it. As it turned out the tree had a tag attached (with directions, naturally, as well as a notice that it was NOT "harvested from a natural forest," and I'm sure that's a big selling point. I'm glad it isn't, and I guess they're increasing awareness or something, but I thought most of these Christmas Trees were little more than branches, anyway.

I lashed it to the bike and rode home.
!@(xmas1.JPG:L120 popimg: "Tree on bike")
then I found and washed the tree stand and stuck it in. The tree stand is designed to hold a tree, not this slender branch, so the screws barely touch the "trunk," much less hold it firmly in an upright position.
!@(xmas2.JPG:L120 popimg: "Tree on stand")

Undaunted, I filled the base with water (as instructed on both the tree directions as well as the tree stand directions), made careful note of all the all the important guidance, notes, and claims on the tag (the tree comes from Oregon and is a noble fir), and then it was decorated.
!@(xmas3.JPG:L120 popimg: "done tree")

Now all I have to do is haul it from the tree assembly area to a properly festive location and fill its undersides with presents. Tomorrow I should make a point of getting those, I suppose.