Searching For Perfection

I am on a quest. No matter how high the mountain, how low the valley, I am searching for the all elusive perfect Christmas tree.

If I close my eyes and take a deep breath I can still remember the smell of all the live trees we had for Christmas as kids. The pungent odour of spruce needles and the fresh smell of the outdoors. I do remember finding one tree in the woods once, when my younger sister and I went with our Dad to pick a tree. No lot for us, it was the real mcCoy, trudging through over two feet of snow in our search. We found one that passed the muster and Dad chopped it down, drug it back to the truck and away home we went. Once it was dressed, with all the cool ornaments we had collected over the years: the bubbling oil candle lights, the teardrop glass balls with the hollowed center in a flourescent colour and the brightly coloured glass birds with the peacock tail feather that clipped onto the end of the branches. Tinsel of course, can't forget that and then the lights were turned on....OOOOOOOhhhhh it was lovely. Much to our suprise that year, the tree we had chosen still had a few of its very own cones on its top branches... When I think back to all the trees we had over the years, that one is the one I see in my mind. It must have been a good Christmas and that's why I remember it.

Anyway, in my old age I want to re-visit the whole Christmas tree thing. After not having a tree for the past 15 years. I told Robert about my yearning and he grudgingly agreed we could have one. Now, don't think that he is a grinch about Christmas, he just hasn't had a lot of good Chrismas experiences, but he does agree that we could use a bit of cheering up at that time of the year, since it is a very lonely time of the year here on the farm. Travel is tough and chores burn up most of the day. So we tend to get kind of down, but this year I am not giving in. We are doing a turkey and I am having a tree. We do NOT do presents. So there is no pressure there. TG.

Now when I say I haven't had a tree for 15 years, that is true, but it is not that I didn't think about one every year. In October I would, nearly every year, go for a nature walk with the dogs and role of pink ribbon. Searching for the perfect tree for Christmas time. I would walk the land for hours looking at trees and would, every year, end up standing at the base of the same tree. It is beautiful. The first year I found it, it was about 5 feet tall, fully branched, dark green with a low sweeping skirt of boughs right to the ground and a straight tall spire to hold the star. Every year I stare at it in rapture. Every year it gets a bit taller. This year, I went on my walk, and yes, I paid hommage to the perfect tree, but I wasn't there to cut it down. It has out grown my humble home and I would now have to find a new candidate.

There's one thing that has never sat well with me about spending all that time searching for the most beautiful tree , and that is to end its life and cut it down. With clean, fresh air a rare thing and the ominous whole in the ozone layer, cutting down trees just for decoration seems sinful and so, I am off in search of the perfect ARTIFICIAL Christmas tree.

Who knew it would be such a difficult decision. Where are the days when when the Sears catalogue had two trees to chose from. We have looked at trees in Rona, Home Depot, Canadian Tire, Walmart, Sears, and the Bay.

We want one that is pre-lit with LED lights but they are rare and the ones we have seen are not the nicest looking. My mood swings several times a day from wanting the perfect tree to not wanting one at all. After two very long days of looking in Edmonton. I am sick to death of Christmas already and I still haven't got a tree. We are going this friday. and if we don't find the LED one we want we will settle for second best. An 8 ft. beauty, unlit and put the $100. we will save into putting our own LED lights on. I'll just have to take them off every year to box it up.

Then, once we have the perfect tree, we have to find the perfect ornaments. hahahahaha you knew that was coming didn't you. I am thinking red and gold with clear lights. I do have a few, my son made some and my Dad bought me a small set of brass musical instruments with green holly leaves and red berries tied to them, the one Christmas my parents came from BC to visit for Christmas....good grief that was in 1979.

Who knew that trying to inject a little cheer into a dreary holiday time of the year with a few coloured lights could become such an ordeal. By the time we find one I will be feel as jaded towards the whole Christmas thing as ever. Baaa humbug.