The Year of the Clark Griswold Tree

A couple of weeks ago we took the kiddos on a field trip to a tree farm. It brought back some memories from the first Christmas Vince and I were married. Think: Christmas Vacation.

It all started so well. We had visions of the perfect cedar tree freshly-cut from my grandpa's land. So we borrowed his old, red pickup truck and headed into the woods.

And even though it was nearly dark and our sight was limited, I still found the *perfect* tree. So Vince got busy with the hack-saw on the side of the hill, cutting down the tree of our dreams.

Doesn't he looked just thrilled that I was capturing the whole experience on film?

Then he finally cut it down. And I knew I was in trouble. I mean, check out that look on his face. It's more of a smirk, I think. Have I ever mentioned that Vince is slightly over 6' tall? And that we lived at the time in a 640 sq. ft. apartment--with 8' ceilings? ...Just to give the photograph some perspective for you.

This me realizing that I am about to be in serious trouble. It looked so much smaller when I was looking up at it on the hill.

We finally got the tree into the truck and over to our apartment. We couldn't even walk from the living room into the kitchen/dining room. Even trimming it down offered no hope for the width of the tree.

So we called Vince's parents to see if they were interested, since they had lots more room. They said *yes*, so we dropped it off and headed for Lowe's. I forgot to say that by this time it was raining. Hopefully this explains how my hair looks in these photos.

We finally made it back home with our fresh-off-the-lot first Christmas tree of our marriage. It was a special moment.

Look! I can walk from room to room in our apartment. And the tree is really no taller than I am.

And that is the story of our first Christmas tree.