Christmas Tree Day

So Grayson has been sick all weekend. He's doing that horrible barking-seal cough that makes my throat hurt just to hear it, plus the snotty nose and general, whiny kid-malaise. I do feel sorry for him, but the whining begins to grate on my nerves before long. I find myself snarling at him to Get Over It, and then I have to apologize for being Evil Mom. I am fortunate in that Grayson is the sweetest tempered, most forgiving child on the planet. He always just says "That's okay, mom," and goes right on about his business, no grudge, no resentment. I don't know how a mom with such a short fuse got such a mild-mannered kid. He must get it from his dad.

We did manage to get the Christmas tree up this weekend, at last. The trade-off of Grayson's weekends with Gray pushed the project back a week, so it's later than I have ever put a tree up before. And I must say that it feels much more Christmassy (is that a word?) around here now that we have our tree.

We suffered a slight setback this year. Our favorite Christmas tree place, at the Coit's Rootbeer Stand, was not selling trees. Since I moved to Oklahoma City in 1992, I have always gotten my trees from Coits! And now, just when I need it most.... no trees. I thought they'd cancelled Christmas. I literally had a moment there when I thought "there is no Christmas this year."

My fears were not allayed when I went to Lowe's and they had no fresh cut trees, either. There were three potted firs and that was it. I went to Customer Service and asked if they had any Christmas trees, and the grumpy girl behind the counter said "We have this one." She jerked her head over her shoulder to indicated a scraggly 5-foot tree leaning against a partition behind her desk. "He says there's nothin' wrong with it."

Did someone actually RETURN a Christmas tree?? Can you do that?

I was tempted to buy the tree just out of pity for the poor thing, but I decided to try one more place. Fortunately, Home Depot came through for me. I got a beautiful 6-foot Douglas fir for $27!! I was shocked when they told me the price. Tradition be damned, I may have purchased my last $75 tree at Coits!

This was also the first time in at least 10 years that I have put up a tree by myself. I'd forgotten what a sicky, gummy mess it is to get the thing set up in the stand and lighted, especially with Grayson "helping." But we got it done and the tree looks fantastic. Today I will wrap some presents to complete the picture.