Great expectations.

We usually get our real tree the day after Thanksgiving.  No matter where we've lived, our trees have just about reached the ceiling. In our Houston house, we had a 25-ft. ceiling in the great room, and one year we had a tree that was nearly touching it.  That tree was so wide that seven adults joined hands and made a big circle around the tree... and wouldn't that have made a great photo if we had thought to get the camera at that particular moment.  It took us five days and two ladders to decorate that tree, and when it was finished, it was just the most beautiful Christmas tree.  We vowed never to get one that big again.  Or I should say, my husband promised not to get a tree that big ever again.... he was at a Christmas tree lot near downtown Houston when he spotted that mammoth fir.  We still wonder how the roof of the car didn't collapse because that's how he got it home.... tied to the roof of his car, driving from Houston to Clear Lake at less than 30 mph.

In this house, all the ceilings are eleven feet high.  After all the years of mostly 12-foot Frazier Firs or Noble Firs, now we look for eight- or ten-foot trees for this house.  Because of the crazy coast-to-coast weather this past year, we heard on CNN that there would be a shortage of Frazier Firs because of a root disease that has taken its toll on the Christmas tree farmers across the country.  Our aim today was to get a Noble Fir.  We're late in looking for this tree.... Thanksgiving was very close to the end of November, and my husband was just over-the-top busy at work, and still is.

So out we went today (in the stupid cold weather) to look for our Christmas tree.  We went to Home Depot, Lowe's, a tree nursery, and even drove into the next small town (which had no trees for sale--- the people who live there buy their Christmas trees in our town).  We even looked at the trees in the nursery section of WalMart.... they were fine if you wanted a tree less than five feet tall.

What gets me is that these big companies insist on spending millions to build these mega-stores, but then only spend enough money to hire a mini-staff of employees.  When you have to find something in one of the big stores like Lowe's or Home Depot, you find yourself walking from one end of the store to the other just in search of a person who works there so you can ask a question.  As in:  "Are these the only Christmas trees that you have?  And will you be getting any more in?"

We walked out of Lowe's.... we did look at the Christmas trees there, none of which were standing in water, and most of them weren't standing at all.  They were tossed over on their sides, one on top of the next, like trees in an abandoned lot.  Let me get this straight---- you want people to spend $98 dollars for trees that have been tossed on the concrete pavement and haven't seen a drop of water in how many days?

Home Depot was better.... trees in water, arranged according to size, but what was labeled as an 8-foot tree was barely as tall as my husband, who is six ft. tall. Who measures the Christmas trees at Home Depot? Tiny elves in green curly shoes?  I found two trees that were pretty nice, but they weren't as tall as my husband wanted them to be.  We have a beautiful gold star for the top of our Christmas tree... I bought it via an on-line auction... the star belonged to Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, and it was the star they used on their own Christmas tree.  This star was handmade for them to exactly match the huge star that hung on their property over their ranch.  So finding the perfect Christmas tree that's worthy of Roy Rogers' star has been a priority since we bought that gold star about ten years ago.

After two hours of driving around and looking at Christmas trees, and walking out of places where they didn't have employees ready to help and answer questions, we came home.  Tomorrow is another day.   I even told my husband that if we didn't get a 'real' tree this year, we certainly have enough table-top trees in our house to celebrate Christmas.  We have three little trees in the dining room, and three more in the living room, and others all over this house.  My husband gave me that look.  None of them could possibly hold that gold star, or my husband's vintage lights.  And how about all our antique ornaments that are still in their boxes?

There is certainly a Christmas tree out there that will meet my husband's expectations. We just have to find it.