Oh Christmas tree! It's that time of year again where I say to Greg "I want a fake tree"! and he responds with "Not a fucking chance"! Sadly this banter happens every year, I ask every year in hopes he will crack, no luck so far. Perhaps I should ask him, right after we do it? I think that might increase my odds by at least 20%?! I would love an easy fake tree but no luck!
So back we go to our annual family tradition of The IKEA Christmas Tree! lol. I know, I see all these lovely tree farm pics all over Instagram and Facebook where families are making their memories. There really lovely and heartwarming and awesome for everyone but ME and my unusual family. I just don't care anymore, maybe it's being in my forties and not needing perfection or the ideal experience to make life meaningful for my family and me. Don't get me wrong, I use to care but something changed for me not sure when exactly or how but I started thinking it's about what I put into whatever experience we do, I'm I having fun and I'm I being in that moment whole and present with a playful sense of self! I guess that's what changed, I changed my perception of the ideal experience. Every experience can be amazing if you make it that way.
I think I enjoy the oddness of it all as well, the drive to Ikea, usually rushed or after some kind of soccer game, my youngest usually inappropriately dressed for the weather ("You know what Amara, just because the suns out doesn't mean you can wear shorts in December"!). Sometimes hit up the cafeteria and sometimes we don't (their food isn't half bad and they serve WINE! My mom always said "hungry people eat anything" -TRUTH, right!). The kids act like weightlifters with the trees or dance with them or have a stack of them start to fall down (I let them figure that one out on their own, I just sit back and take pictures)! I also already know the trees there are more than likely to be off in some way! Isn't life kinda like that too tho!? Honestly, folks, spending over $50 for a tree in my world is not happening. Nooope. That's a Portuguese waste of money, see mom something stuck!
Last year Greg and Che' picked the tree and it was a mess, I mean a real doozy of a tree, an ass of a tree! When it opened up after the string was removed I could not stop laughing. It was literally missing a middle section on one side of this $20 tree. The Ikea trees remind me of makeup grab bags from Shoppers drug mart for 2 bucks back in the nineties. You would feel them out and kind of get an idea of what was inside but once that purchase was made and you tore open that yellow, stapled bag it was buyer beware! But you always had to go for it, that is my Ikea thrill....what tree is under there!?
This year it was Amara's turn to select the "Stoddard Gem" and she was so nervous, Greg and Che' didn't help at all, they kept pushing their opinions of "other trees" they liked better! I told her "Amara it's a tree! Does it really matter?? Good, bad, ugly? This has no effect on our lives or the quality of our Christmas. A shitty tree makes for a great story anyway!" You pick whichever sings to your sole and the rest will all be good!
She picked what she wanted and we shall see what the tree grab bag has to offer us! On the drive home, we got the most amazing sunset over the bridge, that was magic at the end of our Stoddard Shitty Tree Tradition!
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