Groovy Kid Stuff

Remember last year how we cut our xmas tree from our yard? We left about 2 feet of the bottom of the tree there to re-grow - which it is and doing well - and it looks like it will be ready to cut again next year.
This year’s tree is another tree from our yard. It was our xmas tree 8 years ago too, when it was a 3 foot tall tree growing in a pot. At the time we had two-year-old twins and were going out of town for the holiday so we didn’t want anything complicated. My sister who was living in Charlotte, NC at the time helped us decorate the tree on Thanksgiving and we planted it in the New Year. It has been growing outside our front door since, and had reached about 18 feet. Scott stood on a tall chair and cut 8 feet off the top -it is a leyland cypress like last year, they tolerate pruning really well - but you’d never even notice that the remaining tree had been amputated.

This is my second year with a homegrown tree and I still think the idea of it is revolutionary - partly I feel like I’m getting away with something but mostly I wonder why I didn’t think of this a long time ago. But the kids think it is totally normal. When we passed some artificial trees in a store recently, Hazel (with all the scorn and lack of perspective a 4 year old can muster) said, “Why would anyone BUY a FAKE tree? They can just cut one from their yard.”