Our First "Live" Christmas Tree

To buy or not to buy, that was the usd$65 question...That was the going rate at The Home Depot about 2-3 weeks ago but Jill told me that if we wait, we can get it for as little as usd10 or even free! But that's probably going to happen only on X'mas eve or X'mas day itself. Since we will be going to New York for a week from this Saturday to spend Christmas there, we thought we'd go get the tree immediately, and hoped the prices would've dropped somewhat by now.

So here's another "first" for us and probably our last. I wanted Meg (and MJ and myself) to experience having a live X'mas tree since it's relatively cheap and common here. We got a 6-ft tall Balsam Fir from a X'mas tree farm. This is the most fragrant of X'mas trees. For every such tree sold, 3 seedlings are planted in its place. This is what the tag says anyway...The massive tree cost us usd25 and the base usd10. A good deal, I would say. Meg religiously helped place the decorations on the tree, but as expected, all the bulbs and stars were strung only at the bottom! We bought the decor from Ikea. Pretty cheap for the amount we got and then I discovered why...each ornament came without the string attached! I had to tie thin nylon strings onto each one of the 110 pieces myself! One thing about buying stuff from Ikea, they're cheap but you gotta work for the price! I was contemplating the best way to attach the strings, cos if I tied them one by one, I'd still be doing them after X'mas! So the Yen family formed a factory line. I decided the best way to attach them was to hold them together over a flame so they'd melt and fuse together. MJ would thread the fine nylon strings through the eye of the ornament, I would hold them together with a tweezer over the flame and Meg would hang them up on the tree. We did this for a little more than an hour! What an effort! So this tree deserves to be blogged about!

So this is what happens, after we pick a tree, the staff will bring it to be packed.
He pulls the tree through this huge ring-like contraption which has a netting on the other end of it, so basically, the contraption bags the tree into the net, and at the same time, compresses the tree to make it easier to transport it home.
They help to load and tie it securely to the roof of the car, a Volvo I'd rented from Zipcar, while Meg looks apprehensively at the resident dog.
This is what a Christmas tree farm looks like. It's not that big, but they have enough trees with various kinds, heights and sizes to choose from. Most of them were about usd35-40 so I think we got a good deal at 25. MJ spotted it.
Transporting it home wasn't as tedious as I'd imagined. It started to snow just as we got to the farm but He was kind and it stopped, and then started raining only after we'd unloaded the tree back home. The thing about these live trees is that they shed pine needles everywhere! Putting it up is a two-person job and there's a good deal of sweeping involved. I'm not looking forward to the disposal part of it! Stage 1: Compact. Stage 2: With netting cut. Stage 3: In full bloom with decorations. The base of the tree trunk needs to be submerged in water and the circular base can contain about 3 inches of it.
The tree smells really good but after a few hours, we became immune to it.
We're finally done!