HOME DEPOT SURPRISE

This year my wife wanted to buy a pre-lit tree in a box for our family. She has her reasons. No more dead trees. No having to take it down immediately after Christmas. Yatta Yatta...

But alas.. I protest. If I had my way, I'd pile the family in the car, drive to the woods,and Paul Bunyan hack the thing down myself. I've done this several times. It's something we started doing when I was a kid. Then we stopped for a while and did it again once with my kids and my sister and her family in the snow covered mountains of Oregon. However, somewhere in there, Home Depot was invented.

So we don't even go to a "tree lot" anymore. We go to Home Depot and pick one out that's leaning up against a mountain of other trees. We settled early on in marriage on a compromise: I get my Noble Fir and shannon gets colored lights on the tree.

Anyway... last Saturday we made our trek to the land of all things pre-cut. Upon arrival, much to my surprise, we found that on the first Saturday of the month, Home Depot has a kid craft day in the parking lot. It's free from 9-11am. My kids got a workman's apron, a project pin, and a kit to make a box. They then lent us the tools and we had building and bonding time. All of a sudden- just like that- I'm a Home Depot fan. My kids loved it. I had fun. They had fun- and it was something we would not have done had I got to yell "timber!!!" in Oregon... though that would still trump this. Anyway, I put it on my calendar and now you know where I'll be the first Saturday of the month. Bonding, Building, and toasting to the land of bulk home products and evidently- family crafts.

Good times and Merry Christmas. Here's the HD project and the finished product of a decorated tree.