this isn't one of those trees where all the needles fall off, is it?

I can't help but think of Charlie Brown's tree when I think about this quote from the movie. What a sad pathetic tree that was. My friend Aaron actually has the Charlie Brown Christmas tree this year (see photo below).

Anyway, I never had a tree so pathetic as those. The major reason for this is that with the exception of maybe one (at most two) Christmases, we had a fake tree when I was growing up. I remember pulling the "tree" out of our crawl space and setting it up. We had to match the colors painting on the metal ends of the "branches" to the color painted on the holes they went into. It wasn't even really one of those fake trees that look real. It was completely fake, in every way.

Polly and I bought a real tree last year for our first Christmas together. It was a nice full tree that was perfect in almost every way. It was certainly not one of those sickly, pathetic trees.

Tree decorations is also a big deal. We alternated between an angel and a star for our tree when I was growing up. We always had candy canes and colored lights. It's funny because I used to love colored lights, but now i think white lights are much more classy. Anyway, Polly and I have a nice star for top our tree.

It's funny how when you grow up and move out on your own, you take some tradition with you and make some new ones of your own.