Growing up, we never had a real tree in the house for Christmas – it was always one of those fake plastic ones, and while they look better now they looked awful in the 70’s and 80’s (apologies to plastic Christmas tree manufacturers everywhere, but your product really was crap).  But Natalie and I have always enjoyed having a real tree for Christmas, so each year we go out to a local vendor who’s set up shop in some parking lot … we agonize over “is this one too crooked”, “is that one too tall” … and then we toss a tree on top of the car and head back to decorate.  Last year, the tree was too big for the nylon rope so we ended up holding the tree in place by hand as we drove back home … hello, Griswald.  This year, though, we wanted to cut our own tree.  But we hadn’t done it in years, and didn’t quite know where to go. Read More