Mystery Tree

By far my least favorite part of the Christmas holiday is obtaining the tree....last year I was a nervous wreck driving the tree home - I was sure I hadn't wrapped the twine around the tree tight enough, or that I left too much slack in the twine, or heck - that I was using twine in the first place!!  This year I swore I would pay the extra $30 bucks for the fresh cut and tree-loading assistance.  But when it came time, I just couldn't do it.

So...I convinced the kids that we wanted a 'mystery tree' - what's that you ask?  Well - note how nicely it's bundled on the top of the car?  Kids and I bought a tree that hadn't been unwrapped yet!  That way I was sure to do a better tie job and not go psychotic on the drive home!  Great success!

I kept the kids busy in the back by asking them to hold on to the tree and to make sure it didn't slide off.  They were also my 'spotter' crew - and watched the green mound on the hood through the moonroof!!  They took their jobs quite seriously:

So this is the tree before the great 'reveal' !!  We had a reverse-maypole experience with the kids taking the lead on untieing the tree.  It was lots of fun.

 ...and this would be the down-side of the mystery tree:

TAAAAAA-DDAAAAAAAAAA: