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Monday, Dec. 13, 2004 - 2:37 p.m.

O, that crazy tannenbaum

My hangover cleared when we went across the street to buy our Christmas tree. Dave was out with us last night and stayed over, so Casey made pancakes and bacon and I fried up some home fries, but none of that could do it for me. But the crisp, fresh air seemed to do the trick.

Why is it that some nights we still feel like we can drink like we did in college, and others leave us with the feeling of being run over by eight not-so-tiny reindeer and a fat man in a sleigh the next day? Shuffling my feet around all morning, trying not to jostle my system, I groaned and moaned to myself and thought ahead with dread to the rest of the afternoon. But once we got in the car and drove across the street to where Christmas trees were being sold in the parking lot of a strip mall, my mind turned to other thoughts.

As we wandered the rows of trees, a carpet of fallen needles covering the asphalt, we wondered if it was harder to find a decent tree for a reasonable price this year. The last two years, we bought ours from this same place, though it had been located a mile down the road on a muddy lot that is now home to construction vehicles and a sign announcing a new condo community slated to open early in 2006. In past years, it seemed like it took five, no more than 10 minutes to find one we liked and to get a good price on it. This year, 15 minutes in, we still weren't sure which one we really wanted and just how much we could spend on it. The nicest ones we looked at were quoted at $70, so we continued browsing until we found a nice balsam that we got them to give us for less. Five minutes later, it was sticking out of the trunk as we pulled in to the parking garage at home. We lugged that sucker up three flights of stairs and stood it up in its new home, near our windows and the door leading out to the balcony.

And there it stood for five hours while we napped and watched football. Growing impatient with its laziness at relaxing some of its upturned branches, we then decided to help it along, stringing the lights and bestowing upon it the ornaments, trying to pull down those boughs that had been pushed up against the tree from where it was leaning in the lot. During Survivor, we noticed a decided lean -- toward the window, which is better than out toward the open living room -- and managed to correct it for the second time. Hopefully, it will be the last.

It's the perfect tree for this space, this apartment. It's just tall enough to allow the star to fit atop it with a few inches left to the ceiling. It's just wide -- or narrow -- enough to fit in the space between the balcony door and the couch and still allow us to open the door for cooler air when we need it. It has virtually no bare spots, and we've positioned it to have the best side facing out. But having it in the corner gave us only about half of the available branches on which to place the ornaments. And we left out a dozen of the plastic balls bought two years ago at IKEA. Perhaps someday there will be a place we live where our tree can be seen from any angle and we'll decorate it as such.

Soon we'll stash the gifts we've already bought and wrapped -- and been given -- underneath to complete the picture, but for now I'm quite impressed with the setup, particularly when you notice the Empire State Building glowing red and green in the background.

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