Day Three Hundred and Forty: Stumped!

Today Emily and I "kicked off our fun old fashioned family Christmas by heading out into the country in the old front-wheel drive sleigh to embrace the frosty majesty of the winter landscape and select that most important of Christmas symbols." (Christmas Vacation, 1989)

No, it wasn't one of those "stupid ties with the Santa Clauses on it."

Much like the Griswold's from the beloved Christmas movie, Emily and I went out searching for the perfect tree. We even marveled at a few pines that looked great, but wouldn't fit in my yard. ("It's not going in our yard, Russ, it's going in our living room.")

Eventually we settled on the best looking 7-foot white pine we could find, although the lot had already been pretty well picked over.

Fortunately (unlike the Griswolds) we remembered a saw.

On a side note, it has been pointed out to me that I tend to quote Christmas Vacation a lot...perhaps too much. If you watched/listened to/recited this movie as many times I did as a kid, you'd know why I'm not really surprised to hear that.

In fact, "if I woke up tomorrow with my head sewn to the carpet I wouldn't be any more surprised than I am right now."

From the rings, we estimated this tree is around 7 years old.

Did you know: A tree's rings are formed from periods of moisture and drought throughout the year. Early in the growing season when there is a larger amount of rainfall and ground moisture, the tree produces healthy, larger (and usually lighter colored) cells as it grows outward from the core. Later in the year when dry weather sets in, the cells produced by the tree have less moisture in side them, and thus are more densely packed with proportionally more cell wall material, which produces the darker, more compact ring that signals the end of a growing period.

Thith tree ith a thymbol of the thpirit of the Haack family Chrithmith.