Worth the Wait

I couldn’t have cared less that this tree was too big for the house…

Worth the Wait

Earlier tonight, I finished putting the lights on the house.

Caroline happened to find a batch of warm-glowing style C9’s on Christmas Eve super sale at Lowe’s this afternoon, and since I didn’t have enough of the “normal” ones to line the front of the house, it was an awesome find. I’d been waiting for the chance to channel a bit of my inner Clark Griswold, and it was finally here.

After spending so much time on the road in the last few years, I was pining (Christmas pun intended) to do as many Christmas traditions this year with my wife and kids as possible. This was especially true since I missed my youngest’s first Christmas. 

This year though, my prayers were answered rather directly - having recently been “contact traced,” I’m REALLY home for the holidays.

The best Christmas tree I’ve had in my life was one my Dad found on December 23rd of ‘04 or ‘05. The tree we’d cut the weekend after Thanksgiving looked promising, but about a week out from Christmas we knew it wasn’t going to make it. He drove down to one of the local Ace hardware-type lots hoping to find something, anything at this point that was green and worth putting in the house. 

He cashed in big - the guy sold my Dad a 95 dollar whopper of a tree for just 15 bucks. It was huge, and that tree ended up lasting clear to February. To me, that was the greatest tree I’ve known before or since, and we still talk about it to this day. A great tree came to those of us who were waiting.

Tonight, we put the kids to sleep with two big events in mind - Jesus was born to the Virgin Mary to save mankind, and Santa Claus is making his way to Georgia so it’s time for sleeping. There are some things in life that are worth the wait - preparing our hearts to celebrate the birth of Christ, and the joy of presents under the tree.

Now, time for Santa to sip his Hot Toddy and leave some cookie crumbs and a thank you note on the mantel. 

Noel!

-MJVW

The “two days before Christmas” special.

Cheers, Dad!