Posts have been few and far between here lately. I usually hate it when bloggers apologize for not blogging- you know, this hobby where I write about the stuff I do? I haven’t kept up with it- bad blogger!
No apologies- no explanations…except, well, my daughter has been sick, and I have longer hours at my day job, and I have lots of ideas, but just not enough time. Sorry. Wait! No apologies, no explanations!
Anyway, whatever holidays you celebrate, enjoy them…happy new year, and I hope to get back into the blogging groove.
Family meeting
09 Dec 2012 4 Comments
in environmentalism, holidays, Uncategorized
For many years, I have turned up my nose at the debate so many people have this time of year about real christmas trees versus artificial. We have used a small blue spruce in a pot, which we bring inside a few days before the holiday, and then taken back out again. I rolled my eyes at people with tree carcasses in their living rooms, or tree mannequins. I even wrote about having a live tree in my very first blog post.
It turns out, that separately, we have all been thinking about changing our tree situation. The Boy mentioned the other day that his grandma had teased that our tree looked like the tree from the Charlie Brown special. He felt sad. I felt defensive. She’s right, of course. It does.
This drought has made it hard to make sure this little guy got enough water.
I found myself rubbernecking the tree lots on the highway, and sniffing at the trees outside the grocery as I ran in to get milk, and as I was putting out our Christmas village, I looked at the box of all the cool ornaments we have collected over the years, but that we don’t have space for on our tiny Charlie Brown tree.
DH mentioned today that he missed the pine smell.
Kate has been lobbying for a big tree for a while- since before Halloween….
So today, we had a family meeting, and discussed pros and cons of live tree versus artificial versus dead tree.
Kate said she would feel guilty about having a tree murdered for her,The Boy just wanted something big and from what I understand, real versus artificial kind of balance out over the years. The carbon footprint of an artificial is huge- made of plastic, shipped from China, but it “amortizes” for a long time.
And, confession, some of the choice boils down to convenience- no stepping on pine needles, no crawling under the tree with a watering can.
We are crazy frugal here, and the tree we get will last us a long time. The interwebs tell me that the expected life of an artificial tree is 6 years- if we are buying a new one in 2018, then I will admit that we made a mistake. My prediction is, though, that we will keep this thing for-freakin’-ever.
DH went on the mission, and chose a 6 foot pre-lit tree.When it first came out of the box, I was nonplussed. It was all mashed together, unfluffy. I had a sad.
Then Kate and DH worked on spreading out the branches and making it lovely.
What is your choice? Fake, dead, live, stained glass? I’m interested in the thoughts behind your choices.
Strawberry Fields for Breakfast 