Our First Christmas Tree: Part 1

In Which We Purchase the Tree

When David and I finally pulled into our apartment complex after way too many hours in a U-Haul, we sat in the office to sign our lease. I was concentrating really hard on signing Sarah Katherine Oliphant without taking 7 hours and accidentally having to scribble out Street. However, amid my intense focus I heard one fateful sentence come out of the apartment manager's mouth. 

"Sign here to say you know you are not allowed to have a real Christmas tree."

I froze. 

"Like, we aren't allowed to have one at all? Just in this apartment complex?" 

I was scrambling - the lease wasn't completely signed, we could still get out now!

"It's a city wide rule that no one living in a multi family residence in West Des Moines can have one."

I am still quite bitter about that conversation, as my ideas of that fresh greenery smell, a romantic trip to the tree farm, and making one of these flew out the third floor balcony window. 

So, rather than ever consider not having a tree, we caved and decided to get one of those impostors  The tree farm trip was replaced with a not-quite-as-romantic trip to Menard's last week when they had a sale. This place is like a combination of Sam's and Home Depot but 2 times dirtier and 3 times tackier. (If your dad owns Menard's, I recant that statement.) We walked past row after row of screws, Cliff bars, and discount books until I spotted a glow.

"I'm gonna have to let you go in there by yourself," my husband said and headed off to find some hooks to hang our bikes on in the outdoor closet in order to make room for said Christmas tree which we will now have to store 11 months out of the year. 

So I wandered into the enchanted forrest of LED snowmen, fake pinecones, and oversized, plastic light-up nativity sets that look like they are straight from the 70's.

I made it throughout the land of the dreaded "artificial trees" and finally found the steal we had seen in the paper. I called David who was now looking at laundry room shelves, and he came and scoped them out. We promptly realized we'd forgotten a buggy, so after walking all across the store to get one, loading it up, and checking out with a minimum of 7 card swipes until it read it - we made it home with this baby. 

Our 7 foot mixed pine. Now we just have to figure out a place to put it, and wait for it to actually be Christmas season in order to put it up, decorate it, and spray it with some sort of fresh-cut-tree-smell-spray that I am going to find and buy.