The Form of a Christmas Tree

The Greeks, specifically Plato, spoke of the form of a thing being the perfect idea of a thing.  I think we found as close to a form of a Christmas tree as possible. 

Since our first Christmas as a family we have had a plastic tree.  We were happy with this arrangement.  However, we have had two plastic trees in our short 8 years as a family.  This seems like a lot to me considering how much they cost.  Faced with having to replace our tree again this year our children wanted to experience a real tree.  We decided to oblige.  We may continue this trend for at least a few years.

After Thanksgiving, Kristiana saw that some of our neighbors had Christmas trees and began incessantly asking when we could get a Christmas tree.  When she waits in anticipation of an event she is quite relentless.  Friday, It had been two weeks since she launched her conquest for the acquisition of a Christmas tree.  So, despite the icy cold rain, and the inconvenient hour, we ushered the entire family off to a nearby grocery store to peruse trees.  We were not sure we would find one, but we were going to begin our search.  

We arrived at the store and there in the treed foyer was a Santa Claus character handing out mini candy canes.  It was instant magic for the children.  The store was having an event offering samples in every department and an entry into a $200 gift card drawing for trying 12 samples.  We decided to try for the drawing and hoped it would be fun for the kids.  After sampling, my husband went to dicker with the tree man.  I walked out of the store and my husband said the man would give us this tree at a 10% discount.  I gave a big smile and said, "Wrap it up!"  He did and we took it home.  This tree's size, shape, color and virility are perfect.  The needles are green and full of life.  We could not be more charmed by this tree.

I told Andrew stories of how my parents' tree always seemed to fall down at least three times before it was set right.  He exclaimed that his parents' tree never fell and it was always a lovely time.  I said, okay…We set our tree and had it decorated the same evening.  The next morning it was leaning.  All day we spoke of fixing it, but I had a headache, so the readjustment was delayed.  Then late in the afternoon, Kristiana tugged hard on an ornament and down the tree went.  We lost a very beautiful glass bulb.  The rest of our ornaments are impervious.  

Now Christmas seems wonderfully imminent. 

Christ is in our midst!