Early bird gets the tree

I'm hearing that Nova's fan club is getting restless. Where are the pictures? On the phone last night, Amanda was teasing me saying how she has adorable new ones of Nova riding in sleds, Christmas tree cutting in the snow, and other fun winter activities in the Methow Valley. But she's misplaced her computer/camera cable. No pictures for Nana this week. Keeping looking, Amanda...

I don't blame you if you're bored with cell phone stories and recipes. I am, too. But that's winter in the city. Here's our urban Christmas tree saga:
It started as usual early Saturday morning, with John scraping ice off the truck windows. We were headed to McLendon Hardware's one day Christmas tree sale.

The cheerful parking lot in White Center.

And the serious selection...

At home, the Christmas boxes are lifted down from the attic one-by-one. This is a two person job. Then the big tree is wrestled into the stand and forced to stand straight. This is a one person job. There are many exclamations of non-holiday words, and no photography allowed during the process. It isn't pretty.

Finally, the tree installer disappears for several hours to listen to music in another part of the house, and the decorator gets busy. Christmas is here again-- lovely!