Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree..

It doesn’t look like much right now, because it’s still ‘thawing out’ in the corner in the front hallway, but this is my new Christmas tree. I already have a small artificial tree, but with Jenn and boys coming north for Christmas, I figured I should go out and get a real one. I was outside this morning and thought I should go to the shed, grab the bucksaw and pick out a nice spruce or pine on the edge of town… when the kids were small, that’s what we did each year.
But I was lazy and figured, ah what the heck I’ll just buy one. So there I was at Canadian Tire just after lunch and the United Way people have set up a tree lot. So I walked over and snooped around and said okay, let’s do it. So I grabbed this balsam fir, wrapped in a plastic net, and threw it on the canoe rack on the truck. Then I walked over the lady at the table. She said $50 please.
“Fifty bucks!” I screamed inside my head. “I am living amidst the great Northern Boreal Forest… the largest forest on planet Earth and these people want fifty dollars from me for their friggin tree!” I continued to shout inside my head. Trouble is, these people all know me and I can’t just walk over to the truck and throw their stupid $50 tree on the ground. So I smiled and pulled out my wallet, which is now $50 lighter. And the United Way is $50 richer. So I guess its all good. Besides it smells nice. I figure in January I will put in on Ebay… no doubt there is some tree hugger in Toronto will give me $60 for this unique specimen of a 3000 year old tree rescued from the Hudson Bay tundra… yeah, that’s the story… somebody will buy it.