Hey there! Remember my moping about the concolor fir? Well, it worked its way around and this is how it happened….
The out-voted mom semi-graciously gave in to the will of the kids…. we took home the Fraser fir that smelled lovely, but whose needles were a little strangely curled. It turned out to look very full and nice in the corner of the living room, fully lighted and pleasingly decorated. It looked very ‘Christmas’. We were all happy. We were placing an ever rising pile of presents, first the little couple of piles and then a well represented amount ( presents for thirteen people builds up).
All was well…but was it? Despite our best efforts at keeping the tree well filled with water, the needles were becoming noticeably browned. A week before Christmas and we had major leaf drop! I woke in the night- worried about fire, and we talked amongst ourselves of the dreaded, but inevitable: the tree needed to be taken down before Christmas…we couldn’t possibly risk having this fire hazard.
It was decided in almost unanimous vote that we would take it down, so down came all the ornaments, stripped of the lights, and with a huge pile of dry needles covering the floor. I don’t think I have experienced leaf drop on that scale in my lifetime. They did have a nice fragrance, though.
Anyway, we swept up the needles, vacuumed the floor, and went out to find a last minute tree on the cheap. My husband put in an off-chance call to the store where we purchased the tree, to see if an adjustment was possible.
Christmas cheer! They were so accommodating and gave us full store credit, the last remaining trees ( admittedly few and much picked over) were all going for ten dollars each….so voila! I now have a concolor fir, although much smaller and just a little …um…Idiosyncratically shaped. But full and Christmas-sy. The lights are on, it is watered with preservative-laced water, and we re-decorate tonight.
I have the concolor fir I wanted, after all. And the refund paid for the Christmas roast, besides.
A little extra work, yes, but ten dollars is about my price for a tree anyway…. Like cut flowers, so fleeting that it seems a shame to invest lots of money in it, but a tree does add something special to the atmosphere of the holiday.
So, a happy Christmas to us :)
And to you, and to all a good day ( where have I heard that before?)
