My Conversion to Artificial Christmas Trees aka Our Christmas Miracle

Christmas trees have always been a central part of the Christmas celebration for me.  For most of my life this tradition has involved going out and choosing a fresh tree and bringing it home to cover it in carefully collected (with help from my mom) Christmas ornaments.  Even when I was a single girl and had a large enough apartment, I stuffed a fresh Christmas tree in the trunk of my car and prayed I'd make it home with it and my car, still intact.  I've always been a little bit of a snob in my preference for fresh Christmas trees.

This year that changes.

For the second year in a row Tracy and I, on my part painfully, decided to forgo a Christmas tree largely for financial reasons.  It's not that we're in trouble or anything, but with going to Boise for Christmas and a few other factors, we've chosen to go without one.  For me this has been traumatic, and I have not born my grief in noble silence (yeah, noble silence is not a quality I possess).  I told several friends and family members the story of my Christmas tree dilemma.

Someone really listened.

When Tracy and I arrived home from Boise tonight there was a lovely fully-lit artificial tree waiting by our front door.

After finding it a home in our living room and alternately bawling and laughing for a half hour I'm left with two particularly joy inducing revelations:

1) There are so many loving, thoughtful people in my life right now that I can only guess who might have done this for us.  That's how blessed we are in the family and friends department.

2) This is one artificial Christmas tree that will never seem less than the true embodiment of the Christmas spirit,

And finally, most importantly, in hopes that whoever did this might read this, or at least might hear about it -

THANK YOU!!!!