The most expensive and possibly ugliest Christmas tree ever!
It’s Christmas Eve and all through the house, not a creature is stirring–I hope not even a mouse! Our stockings are still hung up and since we celebrated Christmas on the 22nd, everything is way too quiet! But we had a wonderful celebration with our family–our son Jeremy, his lovely wife Jen, and our two too-adorable grandchildren, Lucy and Henry. We made so many fond memories during the past few days. As we put up our tree–just in time for our Christmas visitors’ arrival, I couldn’t help but remember the year our tree cost us $500!
I think it happened back in 2009. Early in December, Randy and I decided to go on our annual Christmas tree-cutting expedition. We’d gone up into the mountains each year since we’d lived in the Methow Valley—I think that year marked our 14th Christmas here. We’d never had any problems—and didn’t anticipate any on that trip into the mountains.
We drove several miles up a snowy, forest service road in our 4-wheel drive SUV. The snow didn’t seem deep, and we followed tracks on the road from other vehicles. Randy commented that there wasn’t any place to turn around, but I didn’t see any reason for concern. Then we were stuck. We couldn’t move forward or backwards. No traction. Randy tried all the usual tricks—rocking the car back and forth, gunning it, using pine branches under the tires for traction, and digging snow from around the tires. Nothing worked. (Except we did manage to cut a Christmas tree!)
The sun slipped behind the mountains quickly and it was pitch dark and very cold, with temps plummeting into single-digits. “O.K., we need Plan B,” we told ourselves. The thought of spending the night in our car with our dogs, Kramer and Kosmo, just wasn’t appealing. Fortunately, Randy was able to get cell coverage long enough to call a friend who called a tow truck.
Two hours later, headlights from the approaching truck illuminated the darkness. Only problem was they couldn’t get our car unstuck, so the car and illustrious tree stayed on the mountain. Good news: we got home safely to our cozy, warm home on a sub-zero night after being stuck for nearly six hours. Bad news: this was the most expensive tree ever! The $5 permit for our hand-cut tree eventually racked up a bill of $500 after all was said and done. Ouch! Randy decided instead of topping the tree with an angel or star, we would use a price tag instead. Lesson learned: next year we bought our tree at Hank’s tree lot in Twisp. And the year after that, a thoughtful couple from our church gifted us their artificial tree, commenting that they wanted to save us from ourselves! We are grateful!
The $500 tree stood in our back yard, where I looked at it from our kitchen window until the spring thaw. It was a constant reminder of God’s grace and mercy to us, in spite of our many mistakes and shortcomings. That we can still laugh and smile about our Christmas adventure is proof that God is at work in each of us.
This Christmas tree was gifted to us!
Wishing you all a joyous Christmas!
