O Christmas Tree, O how heavy you are!

     

                Ya know Christmas wasn't always such a tradition for me, when I first got married my husband hated the holidays fully while I ran circles around him like Buddy the Elf. We were working all the time back then and had just moved to Boise Idaho. As I was working at Starbucks in the north end of old Boise where the sidewalks gave way for me to escape into that Christmas magical glow from the lights of those houses. I walked on my breaks as much as possible to catch my breath and wipe off my sweaty coffee smell in order to remember there was another world beyond those high maintenance customers. My training Supervisor Aaron was outside on the patio smoking when I returned back to work from such a nice evening walk, I had attended his wedding earlier that summer with our first store group, we came from such a fun, outgoing, high-fiving, hard working coffee shop that now in different new location we still stayed good friends. "Hey Shively." Aaron caught me at the door as he said "The Wifey and I are going to cut down our Christmas tree tomorrow afternoon...wanna come along and get your tree too?" I lit up with excitement, I really liked his young sweet wife and even though they are not married anymore I still think they were a cute couple.
While working the next morning I was focused on getting out to cut a tree down, my husband had said that it all sounded insane and dangerous, but I was truly thrilled!
The 3 of us tucked into Aaron's small pickup truck and drove up the mountain..........it was fun how we chatted over our favorite holiday movies, what colors we were planning to decorate these trees and quite honestly we were laughing all the way!
Aaron was a chain smoker so before we even left the truck on the snowy road side he had a full cigarette, Those snowy slopes had us ladies trailing after Aaron in a floppy, funny way, after an hour into the woods we talked about how important it was to always see the truck behind us on that hillside. 3 hills later I demanded a break out of breath and arms aching in carrying the shovel, Aaron had the main axe as he said this tree had to be PERFECT, so we looked everywhere for it. I joked about how a ray of sunshine hitting the tree would really help right now. Finally Aaron declared this huge tall tree was the one and I stood starring in shock at it's girth , It was perfect looking alright but it was also very very heavy. After a while I even helped swinging the axe when Aaron drew out of breath, I surprised that the whole job was very heavy and took strength I didn't even know I had in swinging. Aaron's tiny little wifey was so cold and wiped out that she carried all the tools back to the truck in order to warmed up again. It was a long ways off that frame of the pickup truck. when the tree finally fell to the ground...I slowly let out a realization "Holy Shit man...we are not going to fit this tree in the back of your truck!" Aaron laughed back at me with a nod of confidence "Yeah it will work...we just got it get it over there." An easy plan, a good thought but the reality was slow moving, I was surprised at how pokey those pine needles were, how the tree trunk stuck to my coat and gloves.....I noticed that my big arms were carrying most of this tree along with my wild messy hair and snow covered tennis shoes. I have always been the kind of person not to care about such things while working, during one of our many breaks laying the tree down and catching our breath while spatting out any word that comes to mind......Aaron and I were both laughing and trying to catch our breath at the same time. "This tree is kicking my ass!" He said finally after hacking up his lung again we were on the 3rd hillside slope I replied back over my shoulder for I lead the way down the trail "Well, You had to get a perfect tree no matter what!" It was a true mess of freezing cold snow, muddy bank sides, pine trees outlining our walking trail and the 2 of us carrying a freshly cut down evergreen mixed in with our body sweat and Aaron's cigarette smoke. We wanted to take our jackets off as we were over heating in all that maneuvering across the forest valley, but then that cold wind would hit us in face going uphill again and again. We hurried on the trail but it felt like we were stuck in place with all our clothing, caps, gloves and scarfs still on. "THIS is true Bullshit! I thought I was stronger then some ol' tree!" I spatted out as we made it to the slope below the parked pickup truck. We laid there against the ground coughing and groaning waiting for a miracle to get that thing into the back of the truck where we didn't have to do anymore climbing, I remember how clear that sky was after seeing nothing but pine needles and branches in front of me during that hour hike. "I could NOT have gotten this far without you Shively." Aaron moaned out laying across in the wet uncomfortable snow bank. I began to laugh out loud as I rolled on the ground saying back at him "NOW I know why I was invited....." Those final steps in getting that tree hooked into the truck took everything out of us  just as Aaron's wife called out from the pickup window "Don't forget Debby needs to get her tree now." 
Aaron and I exclaimed at the very same time "Oh Fuck!" Then I quickly went over to the side of the road and declared that 3 footer was mine! Aaron was both grateful while laughing at me as I clearly spatted out in my messy exhaustion. "I am truly DONE with cutting down a tree, for it's far less romantic then how They make it look in movies! I mean once that son of a bitch is cut down who the hell in their right mind will carry it ALL the way back? I'm tellin ya this little guy is the perfect tree to ME! We can cut this and toss it in the back no need for perfection I like it and it's right here in front of us! DUDE I am NOT going back out there it's almost night time anyway, this is craziness, craziness!"
Once home My husband exclaimed "What the HELL happened to YOU!" I simply smiled back through the mud, the sap and thousands of pine needles in my hair and face stating proudly like this is way everyone looks afterwords "Why I've cut down my own Christmas tree of course, HA!"