The Christmas Tree

In 1993, we were an up and coming young family. The boys were 11 and 5 yrs old, their older sister had just graduated from high school. For the first time in our married life, we were both making a good living and realizing some of those lifelong dreams we'd shared for years. One of those dreams was to own our own home. We found the perfect house, a large ranch style bi-level in a little tiny town close to our jobs. As soon as we'd closed the house deal, we were moving in.

By May of 1993, we'd finished moving and were busily making our new house our home. The room that originally drew us to buy this house was a 16' x 21' sunken living room. The room was four steps lower than the upper level of the house, and the vaulted ceiling was 16 feet high at the top. There was a floor-to-ceiling brick fireplace across one corner with an old fashioned hearth about 18" high and 18" wide across the front. It was the perfect room for a family to gather in and watch television or enjoy a fire on chilly nights. From the day we bought the house, we'd been telling one another that this room was begging for a huge Christmas Tree. We even promised one another that we would find the perfect 14 or 15 foot tree and have a story-book Christmas. By the time December rolled around, we'd found that the cost of repairs and other expenses had pretty well depleted our savings accounts. When we priced those huge trees, we found out that the cost was incredible and decided that a smaller tree would have to suffice. Somehow, for the next four years, we just never found a good time to spend the nearly $100 that it would have cost to buy that extra special Christmas tree.