The great room of our house has a ceiling that is about 25 feet high. As we gave tours of our house throughout its construction, we always gestured to the very center of the house and said we would put an enormous Christmas tree there some day.
At first I envisioned a huge live tree. Then, I realized there would be no way to transport it to our house once we picked it out. My husband suggested we might find a suitable tree on the farm we live on. So, we went for a walk and scouted for trees a few months ago. Everything was either too scrubby, way too small (think Charlie Brown Christmas Tree) or way way too big (think 50 feet).
Once we moved in, I started shopping around for Christmas tree. I quickly discovered a tree over 7 and half feet is unusual. I did find a nine foot tall tree in a catalog. It cost several hundred dollars and could be shipped to my house on a truck. The shipping was an additional cost that I couldn’t justify. I was afraid we might have to give up on our tree dream.
Then, my aunt asked if we would like to have her tree. She has a great room in her house and when she moved in she inherited a 15 foot tall tree from the previous owners. She thought the tree was beautiful, but a little too wide for her living room. She found a skinny 15 foot tree on display at Walmart and negotiated to buy it. And, she thought the perfect place for her old tree was in our house.
Yesterday, we went to pick up the tree. Because it is so large it breaks down into many pieces. We weren’t even sure if we could fit it in our vehicle. But, it fit perfectly!
We started putting the tree together last night. We took turns fluffing each piece painstakingly by hand and putting them into place. Soon we lost our Christmas spirit. Also, it made our hands cramp up. That contributed to the lack of Christmas spirit.
My mom offered to come over tonight and help us finish. It went much faster with all three of us working at once. And, then we put up all the lights we had (900–which wasn’t enough)! I put ornaments on the part that has lights. I’ll have to finish the rest up tomorrow.
It looks gorgeous! It just makes the hosue seem more homey! I’ll put up a picture when I am feeling less tired from hours of slaving over the Christmas tree. 
