Thanksgiving and the Big Tree

I like to cook...no, I love to cook.  So, Thanksgiving is pretty much my favorite day of the year.  And because it is my favorite day of the year I don't like anyone to mess with it.  What I mean to say is that every fourth Thursday in November I am in charge.  Things are done my way.  I decide the menu, the guests, the time people arrive, eat and leave.  Wait a minute....this is the way Thanksgiving used to be...back before it became the day that we also get our Christmas tree.
Cutting down and putting up the tree was always our day after Thanksgiving tradition...until three years ago when my husband built a great room, decided that we needed a fourteen foot tree and that it should be put up on Turkey Day.  And yes, I said fourteen feet.   Before we built our great room Mike's biggest complaint about our house was that we had to have our Christmas tree in the kitchen.  It was the only place that would work since we had a wood stove in the living room that would have undoubtedly killed it within a week.   The tree in the kitchen got him so mad each year that I'm pretty sure that's why we have a great room now.
Well, a tree like the one we now put up requires strategy.  I suppose that is why we have to put it up on Thanksgiving.  Friends and family are in high spirits anticipating the start of the holiday season, and what could be more festive than putting up a tree?  Before they know it, they are hauling a two hundred pound tree onto a trailer, pulling it through our garage and forcing it through a tiny door that it has no business going through.  Yep, we sucker them in every year.

And that is how a Christmas tree stole my Thanksgiving.  No more Macy's parade...too many people too busy almost knocking the tv over.  No nicely cleaned carpets....they're all covered with muddy boots and pine needles.  No holiday music playing in the background....just Mike and his brother shouting directions at eachother.  At the end of the day, though, we all know at least one thing that we are thankful for.  Thank goodness we don't have to do that again for another year!

This is the first year that we brought home our big tree.  As you can see it didn't want to come through the door.

It's a definite that someone is going to end up falling on the ground while trying to pull the tree in.  The second year we put it up was Steve's turn.

Tools, Bowls, and a 300 Pound Table

As many of my close friends know, my husband has two loves in his life: hunting and his tools.   I come in a close third, which is okay with me since he's not out doing something really horrible with his time...like playing video games (that might be a deal breaker).   Although his hunting habit isn't beneficial to me at all -not being a fan of venison or of the two deer heads mounted on the walls of my house, his love affair with tools has come in handy countless times over our nine year marriage.  He is honestly able to fix everything, build anything, and if he can't -he'll go out and a buy a new tool so that he can.  Recently he has become completely obsessed with woodworking. Several months ago he discovered Craig's List and realized it was uncharted territory for tool acquisition.  He was especially excited about a lathe that he purchased second hand and got to work immediately churning out bowl after bowl...sometimes three or four a day.   Now who am I to complain about countless beautiful bowls piling up around the house, but after weeks and weeks of bowl turning I was, shall we say, not as enamored as he was with his new found talent.

Still, it came in handy when we threw a 70th birthday party for my aunt.  Michael made beautiful hand-turned bowls out of a tree that he cut down from my parents' (and formerly grandparents') house and gave them to everyone as a memento of the occasion.

My Pottery Barn replica

The cradle that no baby ever slept in...ha!

In addition to the bowls, he has filled our house with several lovely pieces of furniture: a tv stand, a corner cabinet, two end tables, stools, shelves...I could go on and on.  Before Noah was born he crafted a beautiful cradle.  Unfortunately neither Noah or Addison would have anything to do with it.  Then, last Christmas he replicated a table that I wanted from the Pottery Barn catalogue. But no piece of workmanship has ever been as impressive as our new kitchen table.  Made from the same tree cut down from my parents' house, he milled it, dried it and began work on it several months ago.  Many thanks to all of our friends who helped him move it from here to there and back again during the time that he was building it. Weighing in at over 300 pounds (God help us if we ever have to move it) it was no small feat getting it from his wood shop to the kitchen!
So, even though the never ending sound of power tools occasionally makes me want to scream, and I think I might die if I have to vacuum up one more wood shaving from the living room, I guess those things are a small price to pay for having such an amazingly creative husband.