Oh Tannenbaum.
Normally, I get a real tree for Christmas. For years, we cut one down in the forest and it was a whole day event. It would start early with Mom & Dad supplying have hot chocolate in the thermos, and we'll all get bundled up for the car ride up to the Sandia mountains. It was a group affair, and we'd meet up with family friends at a McDonald's along the way for breakfast.
Up in the mountains (yes, there are mountains in New Mexico) we'd tramp through the snow (yes, there is snow) until we determined that we'd found The Tree. Satisfied, there would be a brief struggle involving Dad vs. Nature before the tree surrendered and we could drag it back to the car.
My favorite part was the decorating though. Eggnog and James Taylor Christmas songs while we sorted through the years of ornaments that we've collected. I can remember something specific about almost every single one that I put on the tree, even to this day. Our tree ends up being almost like a scrapbook of the years: there's the ornament my Mom always puts up because she stitched it for the brother I never knew, there's the sheer butterflies that Dad has to put at the top of the tree so the pets wont get at them and then there are the multitude of craft projects presented to the tree over the years from my sister and I. I'm impressed that those styrofoam + glitter creations haven't dissolved over the years. The one that used to pain me each year is the one I broke in a craft store that my mother made me buy, fix and hang on our tree as a lesson. Lesson learned, now we laugh about it.