Christmas tree hunting



—Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from my family to yours!


By Allan Olson

Early last week, Nikolai and I headed out in search of a Christmas tree. We were armed with a chainsaw I borrowed from my brother (that I couldn’t get started) and a handsaw. I had two locations in mind; the second one was an afterthought and I really was certain it would be a good location. It turned out that it wasn’t, and we ran out of time to continue our search due to darkness.
That was Monday – the one and only day I had an opportunity all week to conduct such a search. On Saturday morning I called out to the kids to ask who wanted to go out searching for a tree again with me – the only one interested was Nikolai. I was clearly not happy with my other children. My wife decided that she was going to go along, and in addition, all the kids would go as well. After all, every other time for the past six years we have all gone out together to pick a tree. 
So everyone put on their winter boots and we set off on our search. We headed out to my original search location – a long, dead end road with lots of foot trails leading from it (none of which I felt inclined to explore) with the kids, a chain saw I still can’t get started, even though my brother did it in front of me a couple days prior, and of course our trusty little hand saw.
We finally found a likely candidate for our living room. Everyone looked it over and decided that it would pass inspection, so Nikolai and Abigail set to work as a team on the task of cutting it down. They actually worked in sync quite well with each other and after about five minutes and a couple of rest breaks and rotations around the tree, it came crashing down. Of course it was still longer than we needed, so this time the team of Marcus and Alivia worked on reducing the size of the tree. This duo always plays well together, but apparently they don’t work very well together. I finally had to take over the task at the end, but in reality, they almost pulled it off – I only made about two cuts and the job was done.
My wife, Nikolai and I loaded the tree and secured it to the top of the vehicle. At home, I got the decorations down out of the garage, and then Nikolai and I hauled the tree into the house. We really should have had a tape measure with us, because once again we had to shorten it some more. We left the tree in the entryway to “defrost” for the day, and I assigned Marcus and Abigail to carry in the boxes of decorations.
With the tree process done for the day, I headed back to the Big Bear Tournament in Cass Lake to catch some of the excitement of the final day of wrestling. Back at home that evening, I found the time to finish my book.
On Sunday morning, I heard a request from the kids for Malt O’ Meal for breakfast, so I gladly complied, considering that I was planning to the day before until I had a request for omelets. The kids were required to do some cleaning and I worked on some other things. My wife and I went to town to finish Christmas shopping, and back at home a couple hours later Nikolai and I carried the tree up, and my wife helped get it in the stand and set up correctly.
Marcus and Alivia started the decorating process, while Abigail and I focused on her homework, which is always a challenge. If it’s not math, it’s something else – and it’s exhausting for both of us to deal with. In between her homework sessions, she was allowed a few breaks to help decorate or set up some of the other Christmas displays my wife has accumulated over the years.
The past weekend was busy, and this coming weekend only promises to be busier with all the activities planned for Christmas. I’m looking forward to a fun weekend with family. Hopefully there will be some time to get outside for some winter fun – if the weather doesn’t get too chilly.
Merry Christmas to all!
Please remember to watch out for the buses that will be carrying our most precious cargo. Also, snap a photo or two to preserve a lifetime of memories. Thanks for reading, and have a great week! Feel free to drop me a line at cltimes1@arvig.net or stop by the office for a visit.


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